By the Pale Moonlight (Book One of the Moonlight Series) (28 page)

"They'll still get the job done," Ty
said—from across the room.

I made a total of five, to be strategically
hidden around my house. In addition, he had me make a couple of
smaller batons that could be tucked into my purse or hidden in a
sock. By time I was finished, I was covered in dust. Despite my
exhaustion, I sucked in my billionth lungful of the woody scent as
I flipped the sander off.

Ty pulled on a glove to pick up one of the
bats, doing a double take at my expression. "What are you doing?"
he said.

"I can't help it. The smell of freshly cut
trees is so yum."

Ty frowned. "I don't smell anything."

The very room permeated with the thick woodsy
smell. I grinned. "You're kidding, right?"

"No." He picked up one of the completed bats
and sniffed it, nostrils flaring. "I don't smell anything. I didn't
even notice until you mentioned it."

This new development led us back to the ash
tree between our houses. I pushed handfuls of leaves into Ty's
face, but he couldn't pick up their scent. It was only after I held
the leaves for a short time that he caught a faint trace of my
perfume amidst the void of scents.

"It's barely there," he said. "I honestly
don't think I'd pick it up if I didn't know what to search for." He
inhaled deeply. "Yep, there it is. Did I ever tell you that you
smell like fresh strawberries?"

"No." I tried to ignore the flush of heat
that went through me.

"Frankly," he said with a shrug,
"I'm...stumped."

I groaned at his bad sense of humor. "I'll
call Melanie tonight. Maybe if we put all of our heads together, we
can figure out what this means. Plus, I have to find out what
happened with Matt."

I waggled my eyebrows and Ty laughed. "Girl
talk. Count me out."

He started back toward his house. I jumped on
his back and planted a kiss on his neck. "I'll fill you in
later."

"Oh, good."

"Do you see her?" Melanie whispered.

"No." I frowned. "She always eats lunch out
in the courtyard, though."

"Maybe she's sick today?"

"No—I'm pretty sure I saw her earlier." Like
I could miss her chest walking around.

Melanie sighed deeply and took a seat behind
my mother's desk. "Well, I'm beat. You watch, I'll sit."

Standing post at the windows facing the
courtyard, I paused in my search for Carrie to study her profile.
Faint shadows lined her eyes.

"Late night?" I tried to keep my voice
nonchalant and failed miserably. I grinned at her annoyed
expression. "Come on! How'd it go?"

She and Matt had gone out again on Sunday
night. It put a bit of a monkey wrench in my plans to figure out
the secret of the ash tree, but when she casually mentioned she had
a date, I insisted she go through with it and forget all about Ty
and me.

"It was nice."

"How nice?" I winked at her.

She blushed and shrugged off my question.
"Probably not as nice as your evening with Ty—let's put it that
way."

God, did it show on my face? Perhaps my
perpetual grin gave me away. And dang it if my face didn't go warm
again.

"So," I asked, "are you planning on seeing
each other again?" A few seniors shuffled through the leaf strewn
courtyard and I quickly scanned their faces. Carrie's wasn't
amongst them.

"I don't know. He's a nice guy and all, but
I'm not sure we have that certain something." She paused. "So, your
turn. I couldn't help noticing how you two ditched the rest of us
after Homecoming. Did you have a
nice
evening?"

I started at her abrupt question. "You are
frank, aren't you?"

She laughed. "Well, I always feel beating
around the bush about something is a waste of time. I like the
direct approach. So, did ya? No—never mind. You don't need to tell
me. I can see it written all over your face."

"Really?"

"Yep—you look different. Happy."

I smiled softly to myself and turned to
glance out the window again. She was right—I was happy. So happy, I
could barely believe it.

Movement caught my eye, and Carrie's face
came into focus as she walked out a side door and sat down at a
bench near the fountain. Alone. Perfect.

"Here we go," I said. "Are you ready?"

Melanie took a deep breath and stood. "Ready.
Let's do this."

o0o

We weren't exactly sly—in fact, we were
probably the equivalent to Dumb and Dumber when it came to being
covert. Our plan was simple enough. We'd corner Carrie and give her
a light tap with the ash baton I'd made, while simultaneously
dousing her with holy water. We had no idea if the water would
actually work—all of the texts
claimed
it would burn a
werewolf. However, after the tree branch incident, Ty was no longer
willing to be our guinea pig. I didn't blame him. It had taken a
few hours for the nasty bruise on his thigh to go away—a long time
when compared to his Lazarus routine after being shanked in the
side.

We got outside and huddled together on the
opposite end of the courtyard. It was a cool day, the sky slightly
overcast. The smell of a fresh morning shower still lingered in the
air, covering everything with a light damp that the mid-afternoon
sun hadn't completely erased.

Carrie sat with her back to us and we both
hesitated in approaching her. We exchanged a quick glance and went
right back to my mother's classroom.

"Maybe we need to wait until she's in the
hallway—with lots of people around," Melanie said.

"That might be a good idea. It's not like we
can go whack her over the head for no reason at all." Not that it
wouldn't be fun.

"Right. Yeah, let's wait. Good plan."

Of course, when we turned back to the window,
Carrie was gone.

We rushed out into the corridor, but there
was still no sign of her.

"Okay," I said. "You go that way, I'll go
this way...and we'll meet in the middle. If you see her, do your
thing!" I took off at a light jog.

At every turn in the hallway, I expected to
bump into Carrie. But there was no sign of her and I soon met
Melanie coming from the opposite direction.

"Did you see her?" Melanie asked, slightly
out of breath.

"No." I slumped against the nearest locker
and tried to suck in enough air to keep breathing. I had a stitch
in my side and a headache to boot. But dang it, I needed to finish
this now.

"Let's try the cafeteria." I grabbed
Melanie's arm and pulled her down the hall with me.

A vise-like hand landed on my shoulder. I
yelped, and swung around, brandishing the baton like a weapon.
Quicker than I dreamed possible, Ty's fingers closed over my wrist
and stopped my arm mid-swing.

"Are you trying to kill me?" he asked
calmly.

"Well, no. Not you, exactly," I said with a
sheepish grin. "Sorry."

"Come to join us?" Melanie asked.

Ty snorted. "No. I've come to keep you two
from making complete fools of yourselves. Jesus—you two look like
you're about to reenact a shower scene from a prison movie." His
eyes scanned us both. I held a death grip on the baton, and I saw
out of the corner of my eye that Melanie had a similar hold on the
bottle of holy water.

"It seemed like a good plan at the time..." I
smacked my forehead. "God, what were we thinking?" I said to
Melanie.

"Hey, I'm just along for the ride." She held
up her hands, the picture of innocence.

Ty tried to hide his amused expression.
"Genius."

"And you have a better idea?" I asked.

"Yep. I'm going to talk to her—see if I can
get her to confess."

I'd truly heard it all. "And she's just going
to admit to it?"

"Will you excuse us for a minute?" Ty said to
Melanie before he draped an arm over my shoulders and walked me
down the hall. "Have I told you how cute you look today?" he
whispered.

I blew an errant strand of hair out of my
sweaty face. "Liar. What gives?"

"I just wanted to make sure you'll be okay
with my talking to her?" His dark green eyes searched mine. "I
didn't want to upset you again."

"You still don't believe it's her, do
you?"

He shook his head. I inhaled sharply.

"But that doesn't mean I'm not giving you the
benefit of the doubt, Mac. You know I'll do anything to make sure
you're safe."

"You're not really leaving me with much
choice here. When will you do it?"

"I thought I'd take her somewhere after
school." He raised a calming hand when I started to protest. "It's
completely innocent. I'll tell her it's over—that I'm with you.
Plus, I'll let her know I won't stand for anyone threatening my
girl."

I squinted up at him and tried desperately to
keep a straight face as his words sank in.
My girl
. That had
such a lovely ring to it.

"Fine," I said. "Any funny business and I'll
ash you. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am." He brushed his lips against
mine.

That afternoon, I watched from the shadows as
Ty led Carrie out to his car. My breath caught when he opened the
door for her, his hand a guide at the small of her back.

"He loves me," I whispered. "Me."

I was still saying this mantra to myself
hours later. Ty hadn't shown for our family dinner and the looks of
both sets of parents made me excruciatingly uncomfortable. I tried
to hide my underlying feelings from them, but I could read their
understanding in each glance and attempt to stick to cheerful
subjects. The meal ended and I quickly excused myself and
concentrated on my mounds of homework.

At ten-thirty, I gave up and went to bed.
Sleep proved elusive, however. I tossed and turned, telling myself
everything would be okay, but not really certain anymore.
Accustomed to the feel of Ty beside me, the expanse of the bed
seemed so empty. What could he be doing? I didn't like the possible
scenarios that ran through my mind.

I was still awake at midnight. I sat up at
the sound of my bedroom window sliding open. Ty quickly undressed
down to his boxers and T-shirt before crawling in bed beside
me.

"Hey," he whispered. "Did I wake you?"

"No." I plopped back down and turned away
from him.

He sighed. "Please don't be mad."

"I'm not mad." And I wasn't. "I just
wish...God, I don't even know what I wish anymore. Did you find out
anything?"

"Yeah. You may be right."

I flipped over. "What?"

The faint light from outside reflected in his
dark eyes. "She lost it tonight. I mean, really lost it. When I
told her I didn't think we could be friends—that I didn't think
that would ever be enough for her, she went nuts."

"What did she say?"

"A lot of stuff, but the stand-out thing
would be the threats she made toward both of us. Jesus, Mac. I
never thought she had that kind of anger in her."

The sadness in his voice kept me from letting
out a whoop of triumph. I pulled him into my arms and softly kissed
his forehead. "I'm sorry."

"Tomorrow we'll make our plans. I'm not
letting her anywhere near you."

He held me close and I lay awake for a long
time. A ball of dread expanded in my chest until I could barely
breathe with the pressure it created. Ty couldn't help me. I was on
my own, and I hoped I had what it would take to protect us
both.

It took me a couple of days to pull together
the money for Caleb. It hadn't been easy, but once I had it all I
didn't know what to do next. Walk up to him and hand him a stack of
cash at school? Call the gas station and have him meet me
somewhere? A hand-off like this was new to me. It felt like I was
breaking the law.

I reminded myself that I probably was.

After sitting on it all day, I finally
borrowed my mother's Civic and drove to the gas station after it
had closed for the evening. Getting away from Ty and Melanie had
been easier than expected. I left them, heads bent together over
the computer—something about wolfsbane and a possible cure. Neither
of them said much as I slipped out of the room.

The gas station was dark, and I tapped on the
window with my keys. It was impossible to tell if he was home, but
after just a moment, a crack of light appeared. Caleb, dressed in
jeans and a T-shirt came to the outer door. His feet were bare and
his black hair was still wet from a recent shower.

He ushered me inside, neither of us speaking,
and led me back to his living area. The starkness of the room once
again surprised me.

There was an open bottle of Pepsi sitting on
the crate beside the couch, and a tattered paperback lay open, face
down on the armrest.

I stood awkwardly in the doorway as he moved
across the room to kneel in front of one of his makeshift
bookshelves. He shifted some of the books and withdrew a gun case,
along with a smaller rectangular black case.

Nervous, I closed the door behind me.

Caleb put the Pepsi on the floor beside the
couch and placed the crate in the center of the floor. Laying the
items on its bottom surface, it served as an impromptu table. He
motioned for me to sit. When I didn't move, he studied me for a
long beat.

"The money?"

I withdrew the wad of bills from my coat
pocket and stepped closer to hand it to him. Without counting it,
he shoved it into the back pocket of his jeans.

"Now sit," he said.

When I still didn't move, his jaw
tightened.

"If you want to know how to use this thing,
sit."

Reluctantly, I removed my backpack and sat
down across from him. He unzipped the gun, sliding it from the
case. It looked like a semi-automatic, though the barrel was
longer, and it had a wooden base where you would normally load the
ammunition. From what I could tell, the darts would be loaded on
top.