Howl for Me (7 page)

It wasn’t until I pulled away, leaving him smiling, and glistening with sweat, that I noticed he was just as bruised and battered as Devin. The main difference being, he wasn’t chained up.

Then, I knew that I needed to tell him. He needed to know about the baby, and I fought my way back down to the ground.

“Damon,” I whispered in his ear. “Damon, it... We did it. When you were leaving and I had the test in my hand, and you were all upset, I was about to tell you, but you were in such a hurry, I...”

Swallowing hard, I licked my lips. I kissed his cheek one more time.

“We did it, Damon.” I said. “We’re having a baby.”

Tears welled up in the corners of my spirit body’s eyes and dripped down, onto his face. As I let myself float back into the sky, further and further from my Damon, I watched a smile creep across his face.

He heard me. He must’ve heard me.

Away I went, back into the sky. Before I knew it, I was back in my bed. My spirit slammed into my body, jolting me awake for just a moment.

Sweat covered me, and soaked the sheets, but I grabbed the fang hanging around my neck, nestled between my breasts, and knew that everything was going to be okay. Wherever I’d been – on the eastern border of Texas and Louisiana, somewhere there were rocky overhangs – Damon was safe. And, just like Poko said, he had his brother with him.

It was just a slight comfort, a very slight one, but knowing he was okay was just enough.

I closed my eyes again, and let my hands fall to my sides. That time, instead of another dream, it was sleep that took me.

*

W
hen morning came, it was still raining.

A little harder than the night before, rain droplets pounded the still-dry ground outside my window. They left little rings where they dried on the glass. I blinked twice, making sure I was home, and that I was in my body.

The smell of my grandpa frying bacon pretty much confirmed that I was happily underneath my blankets. I took a glance around the room and swung my legs off the bed, surprised at how cold the floor was when they touched the ground.

A shiver crept up my feet and up the backs of my bare legs when I walked to the window. Goosebumps followed the chill, but grabbing my blanket and wrapping it tightly around my shoulders helped.

“Please be out there,” I said, staring into the rising sun. “Please, please be coming soon.”

Even though I’d seen him, and knew he was safe, my thoughts were still stuck on Damon. I couldn’t help it. I never could.

Then I remembered the phone buzzing from the night before and reached over, grabbing it to distract myself from worry. Just as I thought, the messages were from Hunter, and he was certainly excited.

“Coming tomorrow afternoon. Really pumped! Can’t wait to see you guys.”

That one was quickly followed, like four seconds later, by several more.

“Anything I need to bring?”

And, of course, that one was followed by,
“Meat? Sausage? You got enough meat?”

I laughed, relieved to have a little bit of lightness in my life. Seeing Hunter would be good. I just kept scrolling through texts.

“By the way, remember how you mentioned a girl? Caitlyn, or something? Is there any way you could call her for me?”

Eight seconds after that one, he sent another, telling me to never mind the last message, because he didn’t want to impose.

“No worries!”
I sent back.
“I’ll call her today – she’s doing better after the whole Devin thing. If she’s around, she’ll probably be happy to go on a double with us.”

Hunter sent back a smiley face. I giggled, thinking that, if nothing else, he could always hide the fact that he was a giant werewolf, by masquerading as a teenage girl.

I grabbed a pen and jotted down a few to-do’s.

I needed to clean up the house. The guest room was currently full of old videogames and He-Man action figures. Hunter might prefer a bed to that stuff.

Cleaning might not be my idea of a great time, but setting Cat up with Hunter? That’d be fun. I hadn’t really talked to her since everything happened, only once or twice. Every time I did see her though, she was always smiling and waving, and full of hugs.

“Hey, Leroy?” Grandpa called from down the hall and around the corner, in the kitchen where he was making breakfast.

“You awake back there?” he yelled. “Got some bacon and eggs if you are.”

I smiled. He always had that effect on me, especially when there was food involved.

“Yeah,” I answered. “Be there in just a second.”

It all hit me at once. The smell of bacon, the smell of coffee, and of fresh-baked biscuits. It wasn’t long before something else hit me – reality.

Damon was halfway across the country, and was going to be dragging his brother home. His brother, who tried to kill both of us, and did horrible things to Cat. He was coming back, and we were just supposed to be okay with it because that’s the only way an ancient evil was going to be contained.

Devin Cline’s face danced through my mind. Harsh angles and half-crazed eyes were all I remembered of him. I wondered if he’d changed at all.

Judging by the way he was grumbling and swearing in his dreams the night before, no, probably not.

I fished some shorts out of my bag and pulled them on, trying to keep Devin out of my mind. Focusing on the good things like Damon and Hunter and how much I just
knew
Caitlyn was going to love hanging out with Hunter helped some.

“Come on, Leroy.” Grandpa shouted again. “Bacon’s getting cold!”

If nothing else, I always had my grandpa.

“Coming!” I yelled, and slid my phone in my pocket, then pulled on an old Ghostbusters shirt, and popped my neck.

Out in the hall, the smell
really
hit me.

And, yeah, those were fresh baked biscuits.

Grandpa and I ate in silence. We were both lost in thought as we chewed our food. It was a comfortable silence. A safe one.

I knew, somehow, this was the calm before the storm. I wished that the storm would never come, that Poko was wrong.

Everything was going to be fine, I told myself. Damon’s able to handle anything. He’s strong and smart and kind. Just thinking about him sent a thrill up my stomach.

And he’s mine.

That got me smiling, at least until it was time to get up, and get on with life.

––––––––

“H
ey, Caitlyn?”

I was a little nervous when she picked up on the second ring, but not really sure why. It was probably just a mixture of everything slamming into me at once. I felt shaky and unsure. I shut my eyes, and tried to brush it off.

“Hey... It’s Lily.”

“Yeah!”

I exhaled a sigh of relief. Caitlyn sounded so excited to hear from me that it made me relax.

“How ya been?”

Her voice was so up-beat, so bubbly, that a few seconds after the relief, came a feeling of guilt. She was going to find out Devin was back, and it was going to break her heart. No, maybe not, I thought. Maybe she won’t. Maybe, it’ll be smooth. Like, Damon will come back, he and Devin will do whatever they have to do, and then he’ll go back on his way.

Maybe.

But, then again, maybe not.

“Lily?”

“Oh, shit,” I said. “Sorry. I kinda zoned out there for a second. I have some good news! Sort of. Actually, I have a favor to ask. That’s not too forward, is it? Not talking to you for, like, two months, and then asking a favor?”

She snorted a laugh.

“Come on, Lily,” Cat said. “We went through some stuff, you know? We’ve both got our own lives. You don’t have to do the whole worrying-about-social-graces thing with me. Whatever you need, I’ll help, if I can. It’s nothing bad, is it?”

I wanted to spill my guts to her, but I knew that wasn’t the best idea. Really, I wanted to spill my guts to
anyone
who would listen. I couldn’t do that though. I had to keep stiff, keep strong.

“No, it’s nothing like that. Damon’s doing great. Actually, it isn’t so much a favor. I need – I mean, I guess it is, but really, it’s...”

Cat started cracking the hell up. Really like sputtering and almost choking on her laughter. The kind of thing you do before telling someone they owe you a new keyboard.

“Lily, come on. You’re getting all worked up. It’s just me. Just Cat. What’s up?”

“I have no idea why I’m so nervous. Look...” I took a breath, getting ready to spill it all. “Damon’s friend is in town tonight, and—”

“Does he look anything like Damon?” she asked, cutting me off.

Before I knew it, I said, “Yeah, they look like they could be brothers.”

At that, I bit my tongue, but Cat didn’t react. At least, if she did, she hid it really well.

“Meaning, yes?” she asked.

“Yeah, they... Almost creepy, really, how much they look alike. Got the same hair, the same kinda...”

“What you’re saying here,” Cat cut in, again. “Is that you’re asking me to go on a date with a tall, dark-haired, green-eyed giant? Who, I’m guessing, if he’s like Damon, is super nice?”

I was really happy she kept doing that, because it made my job easier. “I guess so,” I said, laughing nervously.

“And you’re treating it like I’m the one doing the favor?” She giggled softly. “I haven’t been out on a date since... Anyway, yeah, of course. Suddenly, I’m even happier than usual that I took that extra year, before going off to college.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said, embarrassed that I managed to neglect to ask Cat anything about herself. “I totally forgot about that. Work going okay?”

“Work,” she said, with an amused grunt. “Yeah, sure. It’s work. It isn’t much. I’m just doing some contracting stuff for an accounting firm out of Boston. I’m just doing their paper filing and stuff – nothing exciting. I mean, my dad’s proud, or whatever, but, yeah, that’s my life.”

“What about you?” she asked. “Still doing the writing thing?”

I hadn’t thought about writing in almost a month, since the last time I turned in a story to Jolie Evers, at the
New York Times
.

“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, haven’t run anything for a few weeks, but I’ve got some ideas.”

As she was saying, “That’s good,” my mind drifted.

“Actually,” I said. “You asking just gave a
really
good idea. At least I think it is.”

I had promised Jolie one more book about what she called “desert magic.” What better way to end a trilogy than with an ending, right? Somehow, I knew the ending to the story – to our story – was going to be a happy one. What I didn’t want to think about was what it was going to take to get there.

“What’s his name?” Cat asked, breaking my brief daydream.

“Huh?”

“The guy? The one you set me up with.” She giggled again. “You really are lost in thought, huh? I heard about you writer-types do that, sometimes. Just kinda get lost in your own heads.”

“Ha, yeah, I guess so. Sometimes, ideas just kinda pop in there, and you can’t get them out. You have to write them or they fester. You gotta get them down before they vanish. Makes you kinda paranoid sometimes.”

As I was babbling, I pulled a notepad out of the desk, that I had recently excavated from a sea of videogames and action figures, and scrawled ‘end the story’ on it, then underlined it a couple times.

“Hunter,” I said, forcing myself to stop thinking about either Damon, or work. “Hunter King.”

“King? Like... Damon King?”

Caitlyn started laughing, again. Her loud, honest laughter warmed me. I’d never heard her like this before. The flutter in my chest told me that I needed this more than I’d known.

“Are you
sure
they’re not brothers?”

“Pretty sure,” I said, catching her infectious laugh. “Although, sometimes, when they’re together, it’s pretty hard to tell them apart.”

“Well, when are we gonna meet up?” she asked. “Tonight? And, what are we gonna do? Wanna do a double date thing?”

“Yeah, double date. I don’t know when, though,” my voice caught in my throat. “Damon’s not really around right now,” I said, sparing her the details. “So I’m just gonna be third wheel unless you want to wait until Damon comes back.”

“Oh, okay, cool,” Cat said. “No worries! I am really eager to meet this big hunk of man. I should be thanking you, but I forgot. So thanks! I’ve needed to meet someone for a while, just to forget if nothing else.”

Cat paused for a second, and I heard her turn away from the phone and cough. “Sorry,” she said. “This weather’s got my allergies going. Anyway, If you won’t feel awkward, then I won’t either, okay?”

I breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Yeah, yeah of course. I’ll tell you what – he’s supposed to get in today, sometime, so I’ll have him give you a call?”

“Perfect!” she said. “Talk to you then. Or him, I guess.”

We said our goodbyes, and when I put the phone down and looked at it laying there on the desk, I noticed something else. The drawer where I got the notepad was sitting about two inches open, just enough for me to see the bottom of a picture. I opened it and pulled it out, almost choking on my swallow, as I did.

The picture was of us – of Damon and I – from high school. It had only been a year and a half since then but we were so different. We both looked so young, so innocent, and kind of wide-eyed and hopeful.

“What a difference a year, a werewolf war, and a publishing deal can make,” I said, in a hollow voice. A dry, humorless laugh followed.

Turning it over, I read where he wrote ‘Love you, Lily – Damon,’ and that was just about all it took. My eyes got all misty, and I couldn’t stop myself. Before I knew it, tears were rolling down my cheeks.

Without thinking about it, I rested my hand on my belly. A smile spread across my face, as I thought about what was there, inside me, under that hand.

“It’s you, Damon,” I whispered, looking at the picture. “This is you and me. We made this. This baby is you and me, and... It’s going to be perfect.”

I kissed the picture, and blushed, for some reason. But when I did it, I felt like he was with me, instead of out there with his brother, in danger.