03 Long Night Moon - Seasons of the Moon (3 page)

“I can’t wait to get to know everyone,” Bekah finished with a throaty giggle. Demon. Wolf. Murderer.

Rylie shoved her chair back so hard the desk fell over. The distance between class and the bathroom was a blur. She slammed the handicapped stall door shut, threw the latch, and slid down the wall to sit on cold tile.

What were the odds that one of those things would show up the morning after a farmer’s murder and have nothing to do with it? Rylie sucked at math, but she bet the odds were somewhere between “ridiculous” and “basically impossible.”

She clenched her hands in her hair and pressed her face against her knees.

Another female. A challenger. Competition for territory.

Rylie’s mind flooded with images of tearing out Bekah’s throat, just like the farmer’s had been. She could make it fast. It wouldn’t even be a fight. Then she would leave Bekah somewhere to tell other wolves that this was
her
home, and they needed to stay away.

“Stop it,” she hissed, but the harder she tried not to think about hurting Bekah, the clearer her visions became.

She
had
to do it. She couldn’t be driven off her land.

The claws curved over her fingertips now. She wouldn’t even have to change all the way to kill.

She clenched her fists. Her hands throbbed as the claws dug into her palms.
What am I thinking?

“Seth,” she whispered into the empty bathroom, like saying his name would make him appear. It helped to imagine him watching. What would he think if she changed into a werewolf in the girl’s bathroom? What would he say about her murderous thoughts?

Rylie stuffed her hands into her pockets and hurried outside the building. The clouds blocked out the sun and turned everything gray.

She found Seth’s classroom and peeked her head in the window, scanning the desks until she saw him in the far corner. The class was darkened for a movie, and she could see the teacher talking on his cell phone in the hallway beyond.

Seth didn’t notice her waving through the glass. Rapping a claw on the window made several heads turn, but not his. A girl behind him recognized Rylie and kicked his chair.

He shot a glance at the teacher before hurrying to the door. She grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the truck.

“Whoa, slow down a minute. What’s wrong?” Seth asked.

“I found it,” she whispered.

“What? What did you find?”

“The killer.” She barely moved her lips when she spoke. Rylie’s hearing was incredible, so Bekah’s would be, too. She didn’t want the other werewolf to pick up what she was saying.

He looked down and saw her hand smearing blood on his coat. His eyes widened.

“Jesus, Rylie!” Seth dragged her behind a bush where they couldn’t be seen.

“It’s another werewolf. I got so angry, I couldn’t stop myself—and oh my God, I started
changing
. I managed to wait until I was alone, but—”

He grabbed her wrists. “Okay, stop. Take a deep breath. You have to calm down.”

“How am I supposed to calm down? There’s another werewolf, Seth!”

“Shh,” he said. “Not so loud.”

She dropped her voice to a whisper. “That must have been who killed the farmer. That’s why it happened so close to my house. I’m going to kill her. I have to do it.”

“Rylie!” Seth shook her by the shoulders, and she cut off. “Listen to me. You don’t want to kill anyone. That’s the wolf talking. We’ve been over this before—you have to stay in charge or it’s going to rule you. Don’t let it.” Rylie nodded, eyes blurred with tears. “Deep breath.”

It took three tries, but she managed to fill her lungs and let it out slowly. Seth watched her closely until she felt her face relax and her shoulders slump.

Her fingertips burned. When she looked down, the claws were gone. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “I could have changed in class and killed everyone.” There were no words to comfort her, so he hugged her, and she squeezed back, careful not to hold too tightly. “How did you get so good at this?”

Seth gave a shrug like it was no big deal, but she could tell the answer bothered him. He dropped his gaze. “Abel talked like that when he was changing. He was hung up on killing everyone who pissed him off.” He switched subjects. “Okay, who is it?”

“It’s the new student. We met this morning.”

“You mean Levi Riese?”

“Who’s Levi?” Rylie asked.

“The new student. I guess Coach invited him to join the football team.”

Rylie didn’t like the sound of that at all. “When you and your family were hunting werewolves, how did you find them? Did they hang out on their own like me, or do they come in packs?”

“Families,” Seth said, releasing her hands. “It’s usually families, not packs. Like two or three of them at a time. A dad and son, cousins… or siblings.”

“The werewolf I saw isn’t Levi. Her name is Bekah—Bekah Riese. She has eyes like mine.” Rylie gnawed on her bottom lip. “I bet they’re
both
werewolves. What are we going to do?”

A voice spoke from behind them. “You’re going back to class.”

Rylie braced herself before turning, expecting Dean Block to be waiting with a detention slip.

She wasn’t prepared to see Bekah Riese with all her honey curls and a sparkling smile.

Her hackles lifted. Seth stepped in front of her.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“That’s a pretty deep question for someone I just met. What do I want? What does everyone want? I bet it’s the same thing.” Bekah faltered under his hard stare. Her smile faded. “Seriously, you both need to get back to class. I told the teacher Rylie is sick, but she’ll come looking if we don’t get back soon.”

“Why would you lie for her? You don’t even know anything about us,” Seth said.

“I know a lot more than you think.”

The wind shifted, wafting Bekah’s smell toward her. Rylie tried to move forward, but Seth blocked her with his body. He shifted so that she couldn’t even see Bekah.

He lowered his voice. “Did you kill him?”

Rylie would have given anything to see Bekah’s face in that moment. When the other girl spoke, she sounded genuinely confused by the question. “What are you talking about?”

She was pretending. She had to be.

“You know what I mean,” he said.

“I’m going back now. You guys should, too,” Bekah said.

Her footsteps moved away from them, crunching in the snow. Rylie sagged against Seth’s back, wrapping her arms around his stomach, but he didn’t face her until Bekah was gone. “She’s right,” he said.

“Are you serious? You expect me to go to class and ignore the werewolf in the front row?”

“No.” Seth glanced over his shoulder, like he was checking for Bekah. His hearing wasn’t as good as Rylie’s. She had already heard the door to the building open and shut again. “But you can’t ditch. The dean’s already out to get us. Can you do that? Can you get through class?”

Rylie bit her lip, but nodded. “If I have to.”

“Get through today. That’s all.” He gripped her hand hard. “You can do it.”

It was nice one of them was so confident.

Bekah wasn’t in any of Rylie’s other classes, but she still spent the afternoon glancing over her shoulder and around corners like she expected the other werewolf to jump out.

“Dude, what’s wrong with you?” Tate asked.

Rylie was slouched over her desk and bouncing her knee at a rate of about a million times a second. The teacher hadn’t bothered telling her to put down her hood.

Tate’s family was rich and important, so people didn’t call him out on his misbehaviors, and his friendship gave Rylie some immunity. But Tate was a special kind of untouchable. In fact, he had been arrested twice since Halloween and still hadn’t seen a judge.

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“You look freaked out. What did you take?”

Rylie made herself stop joggling her leg. “Nothing.”

“Then that’s your problem for sure,” he said wisely. She laughed. It was the first time she had laughed all day, and it made the knot in her chest loosen a little. “Are you coming over tomorrow? I’ve got the new Dark Crash Exodus game. The guys and me are going to stay up until we beat it.”

“You’re doing multiplayer? In person?”

“We can’t share snacks over the internet.” Which was Tate’s way of saying “we’re going to try out my new gravity bong.” Rylie pulled a face. Her nose was too sensitive for that.

“I have stuff to do at the ranch. Sorry.”

But Rylie didn’t go home at the end of the day. She had appointments with a therapist Fridays after school—no exceptions. The visits became required after she tried to tell her aunt she was a werewolf. She skipped out on the first couple of sessions, but Gwyn put a stop to that by threatening to kick her out of the house, and her attendance had been perfect since.

She normally walked to therapy, but the snow was deep, so Seth dropped her off. Riding with him wasn’t as nice as usual. He was too distracted to even kiss her goodbye.

Janice Brown was a frail woman with gray hair to her waist, a love of gardening, and an obsession with chess. She had the board ready when Rylie showed up. “Do you want to be white or black this time?”

“Black,” Rylie said. She always asked to be black. The pieces were prettier.

“How was school?”

“Fine.”

Rylie sat on a worn yellow stool. Once Janice finished watering her ferns, she took the other seat. “This time of year is hard on the plants. The air is so dry.” She moved her pawn, and Rylie moved her knight. “It would help my plants to get more attention throughout the week.”

“Have your secretary do it.”

After a moment of contemplation, Janice moved another pawn. She was obviously clearing space for her rook to get into play. “Christina has enough to worry about. Two other therapists use this office during the week, and it’s a scheduling nightmare.”

“So ask one of the other therapists,” she said.

Janice gave a little smile. “Maybe someone will volunteer.”

“I’m going to take your pawn if you don’t move it.”

“Even though it will endanger your knight?”

She took the pawn. Janice took her knight. It gave Rylie the chance to kill another pawn, though, so it wasn’t all bad. She didn’t care anyway. It was hard to get upset about a stupid board game when there were werewolves on the loose.

“Your bishop is next,” Rylie warned.

“I don’t think so.”

Janice took her queen. She stared at the board. She hadn’t even seen it was in danger.

They played on without talking for a few minutes, but that only made the misery of losing to Janice worse. Of course, after about ten weeks of therapy and not a single win, it wasn’t a surprise.

Checkmate. New game.

This time, Rylie played white. She started out moving all her pawns like a wall, but that strategy didn’t faze the therapist any more than her aggressive knight maneuvers.

“Tell me about school this week. Have you and Seth made plans for the Winter Ball?” Janice asked.

The very mention of it was enough to make her cheeks hot. “He would ask me if he wants to go.”

“Do you think dancing embarrasses him?”

Rylie stared at the board without really seeing it. They had sort of gone to a dance together at summer camp, and he hadn’t seemed embarrassed then. “I don’t think that’s the problem.”

The therapist’s pieces were sweeping the board. She managed to protect her king with a rook and bishop, but her numbers dwindled.

“He’s on the football team, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, and half the other guys in school. Everyone’s going. I don’t think he’s trying to hide from them or anything.”

“Then what?” Janice asked.

It’s on the same night I’ll turn into a werewolf
.

She didn’t say that out loud. Rylie didn’t need to be taken to a mental hospital again. “There are new kids at school,” she said, just to change the subject.

“How exciting.” One of Janice’s pawns was about to become a queen. “I grew up in a town this size. We only saw new people every few years, and it was always an event. What do you think of them?”

Murderers. Challengers. Enemies.

“I don’t know.”

Janice’s queen moved. Check. Rylie’s king could only go in one direction, so she sent her remaining knight to save him, but it was too late.

Checkmate.

Rylie slouched back. “This game sucks. It’s not fair. You should let me win sometimes.”

“Why? I don’t like to lose anymore than you do.” Janice started dropping the pieces back in their box. “This is the last time we’ll get to play for a couple of weeks, so you can beat me when I get back. I’m visiting my family for Christmas. Do you have anything planned?”

Rylie grimaced. Her mom, Jessica, had demanded a visit over winter break. Considering the new moon was right before Christmas, she refused. Instead, Jessica planned on coming down for New Years, and she wanted to meet Seth.

“I’m staying home,” she mumbled.

Janice closed the box and latched it. “One of my colleagues from California is visiting the practice while I’m gone. He’ll fill in for me. What do you think of that?”

“I think I shouldn’t have to go to therapy during the holidays,” Rylie said.

“Just one more visit. Next week.”

Rylie opened her mouth to say no, but then she remembered Gwyn’s threat. “One more week, and then nothing else until January?” Janice nodded. “Fine. Whatever.”

“My ferns are going to need help for the month I’m gone. Will you water them once a week? We’re only a quarter mile from your school, and Christina can take care of them the rest of the time.”

“Not a chance.”

Janice smiled. “I’ll pay you for babysitting.”

“You just want me to keep checking in while you’re gone.” The older woman shrugged. Rylie rolled her eyes. “Okay, I guess.”

“Wonderful. I’ll leave care instructions next to the maidenhair.” She gave Rylie a quick hug, so fast that she couldn’t fight back. Janice smelled like sage and jasmine. “Can I give you a piece of advice?”

“That’s your job, isn’t it?”

“Don’t wait for Seth to invite you to the Winter Ball. You’re a modern woman. Take the initiative.” Janice gave a smile and a wink, then ushered Rylie out of the office to take the next teenage delinquent.