By the Pale Moonlight (Book One of the Moonlight Series) (9 page)

I grasped his hand in mine, hating to hear
the misery in his voice. "We're going to figure this out."

"I hope you're right." He moved to stand near
the windows. "It's growing stronger, Mac." He turned, a solemn
expression on his face. "Truth is, I may have killed Kim. The urges
I spoke of—they make me believe it's possible."

"I don't believe that for a minute."

The corner of his mouth lifted into a wry
grin. "I'm glad you're sure."

Shaking my head, I struggled to find words.
"I just can't believe what you've been going through all this
time."

He shrugged, his eyes still on the students
outside. "I didn't even know what happened at first. I didn't
change right away—I could feel changes happening inside of me, but
I didn't
change
change until the next cycle. I just
thought..." He leaned against the window frame. "I don't know what
I thought. I woke up with these cuts and thought I'd been attacked
and blocked it out or something. Then when they disappeared..."

"Why do you think that is?" It eerily
reminded me of religious stigmata.

He rubbed his hands roughly over his face.
"My theory is that they're a mark of what I am. They come and go
with the cycle—a sort of reminder." He snorted softly. "As if I
could forget."

"So that means this cycle is over?"

He nodded and sat down again. "The cycle is
seven days—three days before and after the full moon."

I tried to digest all of this information.
"When is the next full moon? How long do we have?"

"November fifth, which means we have exactly
twenty-two days before I start crawling around on all fours and
taking on every flea in the free world." He said this last with a
soft laugh, but I failed to see the humor in it all. We didn't have
much time.

I felt like crying, but I couldn't fall apart
now. "Moon cycle—seven days. It's the male version of a
period."

He laughed for real this time. "Lucky
me."

I sat with the real question I wanted to ask
on the tip of my tongue. Why had he followed me? I shuddered to
think about what might have happened had he not, but still, I
needed to know. He said he remembered everything during that time
of the cycle. That meant he saw me about to have sex with
David.

"Ty..."

His cool green eyes met mine. "Don't ask
anything you're not prepared to hear."

"But..." My words were cut off as the shrill
sound of the warning bell rang above our heads.

"Later." He pulled me to my feet.

I felt numb when I took a seat in Biology a
few minutes later. When David sat down beside me, I ignored the
glare he threw in my direction.

"Bitch," he whispered.

I stared at him, shocked.

His blue eyes skimmed over me, his upper lip
curled into a sneer. "Don't know why I bothered with you. I can get
better from someone else." He leaned in, lowering his voice. "But
when you get the urge, Mac. You know where I am." His hand slipped
between my legs.

Anger welled up in my chest and I jerked
away. I slapped him—hard.

His head reeled from the blow and red
splotches stood out against his cheek. Murmured conversations
stopped all around us as everyone turned in their chairs to watch.
Mr. Varner was nowhere in sight and no one jumped in to stop our
argument.

He smiled. "Hey, we had a good time and I'm
sorry you regret it now."

Several of his friends exchanged knowing
looks in the background.

"You know nothing happened." I spoke through
a clenched jaw.

"Baby."

"Don't call me that. You and I both know what
happened out there." Feeling a sudden surge of bravado, I leaned in
and whispered, "If you'll recall, there was a full moon last night.
It gave me a pretty good view of your equipment." I paused and
raised my voice for effect. "Just remember, size actually does
matter."

Several girls broke into giggles behind me,
and with one last backward glance at David's reddened face, I
grabbed my things and took off down the hall. I passed Mr. Varner
on my way out the side exit.

"Ms. Wilhelm, w-where are you going?"

"I'm not feeling well, sir. I'll have my mom
write a note."

o0o

Leaning against Ty's tank of a car, I watched
as he approached. His height guaranteed he'd always stand out in a
crowd, and I had spotted him as soon as he stepped foot outside the
school building.

"I heard you really laid into my good friend,
Dave," he said in way of greeting.

I kicked a small stone on the ground and
shrugged. "It's no big deal."

He pulled on a strand of my hair until I
looked up at him.

"I'm proud of you," he said.

I don't know what came over me, but I threw
myself into his arms, overcome with a sudden sense of freedom. He
hugged me back, and for a second I felt the urge to press my lips
up to his. Our eyes locked and my breath caught.

"So what have you been doing since the slap
heard round the world?" he said, breaking the spell.

"Nothing in particular. I walked around,
thinking about you mostly." I ducked my head, the heat in my cheeks
firing up again. "About your problem, that is. I've decided first
things first. We need to find out all we can about werewolves."

"I've scoured the internet already." A slight
edge crept into his voice.

"Yeah, but research is
my
middle name.
I say we hit the library first."

He opened his passenger door and shut it
soundly behind me before sliding into the driver's seat. "You're
the boss." He paused before putting the car in gear. It rumbled
beneath us. "Thanks, Mac. I can't tell you how much it means to
have someone to talk to about this."

"Anytime."

"I want you to make me one promise." His gaze
shifted to some students piling into a mini-van across from us.

I swallowed, not caring for the direction of
this conversation.

His eyes looked tired and haunted as he
watched the group laughing and carrying on. The sound of their
light-hearted banter seemed to draw him further inside himself.
Just what had he experienced in the last three months? I wondered
if I would ever know the entire truth.

"I shouldn't have brought you into this, Mac.
But I guess I had no other choice at the time." He said the last
quietly, almost to himself. "Promise me that if things get bad
you'll walk away—our friendship be damned."

"We're going to the library. I think we'll be
safe." Making light of the situation made me feel like a complete
ass, but I couldn't help myself. I'd say anything to erase his
troubled expression.

"That's not what I mean." He clenched his
jaw. "Never forget what I am, Mac. Never let your guard down."

The hair on my scalp prickled. Was he saying
I might be in danger from him? The memory of the presence in the
school corridor came back to me with terrifying clarity. Had it
been him? It didn't matter what I thought because, in that moment,
I knew he believed he had killed Kim. Every fiber of my being
revolted against the thought.

"November fifth, Ty. Until then, we're both
safe." Until then, I had a chance to prove his innocence—to myself,
but more importantly, to him.

Finally, he looked at me.

"Am I right?" I asked, my breath caught in my
throat.

"If I have anything to say about it."

"Then I'll be safe. Because if nothing else,
I trust
you
."

His expression didn't change. "Do you
promise?"

"Yes." I nodded slowly, disappointment
hitting me when this didn't dispel the tension in his body.

He put the car in gear. The mini-van had gone
by then, and he pulled forward into their spot before turning out
of the parking lot.

As we drove in silence, I concentrated hard
on breathing in and out as I studied his profile. His mouth turned
down slightly at the corners, and he gripped the steering wheel
hard. He couldn't have killed Kim.

Despite my resolve, a sliver of doubt crept
into my mind.

With a grunt of exasperation, Ty threw a
heavy volume across the table. A small dust cloud rose off the worn
leather jacket as it skirted the edge and nearly fell off the
table. We sat in the middle of the stacks located in the basement
of the library and thankfully no other visitors were in the area.
He groaned loudly as he popped his neck. "This is useless."

"We've only been searching a short time." I
tried to remain positive, but even I had grown doubtful in our
ability to turn up anything useful. The stuff we'd found suggested
only one way out of Ty's predicament. I cringed just thinking about
it. Silver bullet—that was the solution.
Right
.

"Maybe I should be spending my time finishing
those restraints," he said. "It seems I'm going to need them—for
the rest of my life. That is until someone stumbles across me with
a shotgun. Think what they say is true? Think they'll find me naked
in the woods, a bullet through the brain?" His attempt at wry humor
failed miserably.

"Don't talk like that, Ty." I frowned at his
slumped shoulders. "We've only just begun."

"If you start to sing, I'm going to knock you
upside the head with this book." He shook a thick volume in my
direction and laughed when I stuck my tongue out at him.

"You love my voice."

"Mac, I hate to break it to you, but no, I
really don't."

"Whatever." I stared at the many books piled
around us, flipping through a few pages. I felt just as overwhelmed
by the task before us. "There has to be something useful here."

He leaned back in his chair and closed his
eyes.

"You never did say when it happened exactly,"
I said.

He shrugged. "I told you, I don't remember
it."

I didn't believe him for one minute. In our
search, I'd stumbled across a small booklet about moon phases. It
detailed every full moon over recent years.

I could remember one full moon in particular,
not that long ago. On that night it had hung in the sky, bright as
the sun. I could remember the play of its light across Ty's face as
we sat on my front porch.

That had been the night he broke things off
with Carrie.

We talked for hours. Reminiscing, joking
around—anything to distract him from his thoughts. Out of nowhere,
he paused. Sober.

"I guess I always expected her to be more
like you."

My breath had left me in that moment. And
that's when it happened. He leaned in to kiss me. And he would have
if the light on my porch hadn't flicked on.

The untimely appearance of my father had sent
Ty on his way and me inside to spend a restless night thinking
about what might have happened.

The next day he had walked right past me at
school as if he didn't know who I was. Only now did I understand
why.

That was three months ago. The timing
fit.

That covered the 'when'. Now we just had to
figure out the 'why' and the 'who'.

"Maybe we've been going about this the wrong
way," I said. "Maybe we need to focus on trying to figure out who
attacked you—there has to be some way of doing that."

"Short of waiting until there's a full moon,
I don't see how."

"This is going to sound really weird, but
what about a dog whistle?" Before he could protest, I continued.
"You heard me whisper to you above the noise of your dad's tools.
If you heard that, what's to say a dog whistle wouldn't work—hurt
even?"

He cracked his lids. "When you put it that
way, I'm dying to try it."

I grinned, pulling my knees up to my chest.
"You know, this could be fun. Perhaps a little payback for the time
you cut off my pigtail."

"You're still holding that against me?"

"Oh yeah." I flipped through the book before
me, happy to hear a touch of humor enter his voice again. "In fact,
it'll probably take a lot more to..."

With a silencing sweep of his hand, Ty made
the words die on my lips. He cocked his head and listened. I didn't
hear anything. When his nostrils flared slightly, I realized he was
sniffing the air. I watched in fascinated horror as he silently
crept down one of the book-lined aisles and disappeared around the
corner.

I didn't know whether I should stay put, but
the longer he was gone, the more nervous I became. I felt like a
sitting duck out in the open, the dim lights above my head
spotlighting me in the musty room. Swinging my head from side to
side, I scraped my chair back and pushed against the wall. At least
no one could sneak up behind me that way.

The sounds of a scuffle came from the stacks
where Ty had disappeared. I charged after him. As I weaved through
the aisles, a muffled scream pierced through the area and then I
heard Ty cry out in pain. Panic rushed through me. "Ty!"

I came across them a moment later. With her
hair in complete disarray, Melanie Hoffs leaned against a shelf,
her chest heaving as she sucked in deep breaths. Ty stood a couple
of feet away, cradling his hand against his stomach. I grabbed it.
The outline of teeth showed clearly against his skin.

My mouth dropped open as I turned to Melanie.
"Did you do this?"

She exhaled sharply, dark hair flying out of
her face. "He's lucky I didn't do worse. How dare you sneak up
behind me like that! You scared me to death!"

"You were eavesdropping on us," Ty
seethed.

"I was not."

Oh, crap.
"What exactly did you hear?"
I demanded.

"Jesus," she said. "I didn't hear
anything
. I work here. Get over yourselves." With that, she
bent to pick up a small pile of books lying at her feet. I
exchanged a glance with Ty. We
were
some distance from where
we had been sitting. He had heard her, but that didn't mean she
would've been able to pick up on the exact thread of our
conversation.