Haunted (4 page)

Nothing like surrounding yourself with polite hostility and passive aggression. It's so good for the soul.

The rest of the evening played out like one from an unrealistic TV sitcom; everyone got along smashingly and enjoyed the night. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it never did. Miracles really were possible.

When the movie finished, Peyta and I put her bed together and cleaned up the dishes; Cooper disappeared into his room. When she was all settled in, I locked the front door and turned off the light as I made my way to my room.

I leaned my ear against Cooper's door as I passed. The lights were on but I didn't hear him moving around. When I knocked lightly he didn't respond. I wanted to talk to him quickly, just to tell him how glad I was to have the old him back if only for one night. The knob was quiet as I turned it, and I stuck my head around the door once it was open wide enough to do so. Cooper was laying on the bed asleep.

I had noticed that he didn't seem to be sleeping much during the day anymore, which previously had been making up for his never sleeping at night. Pure exhaustion must have taken over, and he lay as though he had collapsed face down across the width of the bed.

Smiling to myself, I pulled a blanket off of his armchair and draped it carefully over his body. I tiptoed to the light switch and carefully pushed it down. I had almost closed the door behind me when he started twitching. At first it was subtle and I might have missed it if it wasn't illuminated by the hallway light, but the tremor was there and it started to increase in intensity. It looked almost seizure-like at first and I started to worry, but then I noticed he was mumbling things as he moved; he was talking to someone.

His jerky movements started to look more like he was taking blows of some sort, his head snapping back and forth violently while his arms flailed in front of his face in an effort to ward off his attacker. He was writhing around in pain, dropping his arms down occasionally to cover his phantom wounds. It was completely bizarre and I couldn't watch it anymore; I had to wake him.

I flipped the light switch on, only to hear the bulb pop and sizzle as it burned out. Awesome. I went over to him as he began to quietly plead for help; I knew that soon he'd be screaming for it. The severity of his movements decreased as I neared him, but they continued nonetheless. Placing my hand gently on his leg, I called his name, getting nothing in response.

I shook his leg next, saying his name more loudly as I did it. No change. I jumped on the bed beside him and grabbed his shoulders, squeezing them hard as I yelled his name into his ear.

Bingo.

He shot up from his semi-fetal position with a roar of a sound, grabbing my body as he did. Picking me up like I weighed nothing, he threw me across the room like a rag doll. I crashed into the door, closing it completely with a slam. The pain was immediate and sharp, and tore a shriek from deep within me. High velocity contact with a doorknob will do that.

I collapsed to the ground, winded by the blow, desperately seeking the oxygen I needed. As I slumped by the door not making a sound (because it was far too painful to do so), Cooper turned on the bedside lamp in the far corner of the room, before jumping the bed in a single leap, practically landing on top of me. He didn't look friendly.

I wheezed his name over and over, as I struggled for the air that his assault deprived me of. I didn't understand what was going on. He looked feral, a shell of the Cooper I knew. He was growling at me with wild, unfamiliar eyes. I wasn't convinced that he was awake yet, as he clearly saw me as a direct threat and I needed to snap him out of it and fast. Peyta's safety was at risk, as well as her sanity. She didn't know that urban legends truly existed, let alone that she was shacked up with two of them for an undetermined amount of time.

I thought about removing my ring for a second but realized that move could make things worse rather than better in a hurry. My wolf, Scarlet (as we'd come to name her), was a bit unpredictable at best. Instead, I saw a large hardcover book laying on the rug only a couple of feet away from me. Sprawling across the floor, I desperately reached for it as Cooper looked on. Once I had a good grip on it, I flung it frisbee-style directly at his head; I had impeccable aim as almost anyone would have at that close range.

Bam, right in the dome piece!

It knocked him backwards for a second, then he came up moaning while rubbing his forehead. He looked at me, crumpled over on the floor, gasping for air, and crawled to me instantly.

“Ruby? Oh my God, Ruby! What happened? What did I do?” he whispered.

“You…threw me…sack of potatoes,” I wheezed, slightly more able to breathe than before.

“I thought you were…,” he said, cutting himself off.

“What? Thought I was what?” I asked, hoping to finally get some answers out of him.

“Never mind.”

He helped me to sit up, then brushed my hair off of my face gently. Once I caught my breath enough, he helped me stand. He reached around the small of my back to do it, and I nearly screamed, my knees buckling with the pain.

“I'm sorry! What did I do?” he asked, not knowing how to help.

“My back. I think…I may have…broken ribs,” I said through gritted teeth.

He delicately picked me up over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and took me to my room. As I looked up towards the living room, I saw no movement and heard nothing.

That kid sleeps like the dead. Lucky for her.

He put me down gently on the bed and sat behind me, pulling up my shirt enough to see what marks my injuries had left behind.

“Whoaaaa! That's one helluva bruise, Ruby,” he said with surprise in his voice. “I'm so sorry, but you shouldn't sneak up on me like that.”

“I didn't 'sneak' up on you. You were twitching and mumbling on the bed when I went in to talk to you. It was getting louder and scarier. I tried to wake you up,” I said as I shuffled over to my full-length mirror to assess the damage to my back.

“Tried?” he asked.

“Yeah, as in it wasn't working, so I shook you and kinda yelled your name in your ear. The next thing I knew, I was flying straight backwards at the door like I was bungee-corded to it,” I explained.

“So I threw you into the door for no reason?” he said, sounding confused. There was a hint of disbelief in his expression.

“Oh, I'm sure there was a reason, it's just not one I can fathom,” I said only half joking. “The scariest part was when you leapt over the bed, landed at my feet and growled at me. The lights were on but nobody was home, if you know what I mean.”

He paled in an instant.

“I was growling?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah, why? You are a werewolf. It doesn't seem like a big stretch to me.”

“It's not, but I only growl before I attack,” he said, before looking away from me. “Attack to kill, to be more precise.”

It was my turn to go pale.

“Oh.”

7

After the last bit of information Cooper shared, he clammed up on me and wouldn't talk about anything else. He told me he needed to bail, and was going to go out for the rest of the night. He hugged me gingerly before he left my room; he hadn't done that in weeks, maybe months.

I slept uncomfortably that night, trying to find a position that didn't irritate my back; it seemed such a thing didn't exist. When I woke up I was more sore than I remembered being and started to panic – my dance performance was only days away.

I needed to figure out if I should go to the hospital or not. Cooper had said that I did heal more quickly than a normal human, but not by much. After the events in Utah that made us fast allies, hunted escapees, and ambush survivors, I'd spent around twenty-four hours in a healing coma on our way back to New Hampshire. Cooper had said that I'd been wounded horribly in the fight and if it hadn't been for some voodoo magic Sean performed, I probably wouldn't have made it at all. Apparently it sped the process greatly.

The question still remained: would I heal fast enough on my own to be in top form for the weekend, or did I need some kind of intervention, human or otherwise? I waited around all day for Cooper to show up, hoping he would have an opinion on the matter. Since he caused my injury in the first place, I thought he owed me that. Peyta was out with an out-of-town friend for the day so it was the perfect time to figure out the best course of action without having to tiptoe around her.

My plan completely shit the bed. Cooper was a no-show and Peyta came home early, pumped for more girl time. I was certain that girl time, aka GT, would be the death of me, especially when mention of a boy was made. I cringed and silently begged for Ronnie to call so she could deal with all the giggly rambling. A dating advisory role was so not what I signed up for when I said Peyta could stay with me.

The next couple of days went similarly: no Coop, slow healing, and more GT. I had to cancel out of two rehearsals because of my back, telling Pam that I had food poisoning. I needed to get better and fast.

Desperation led me to the craziest thought I'd had yet. If Scarlet could sustain all that damage in Utah without it even slowing her down, perhaps she healed faster too. It was worth a shot. I hadn't let her out since the Eric incident and I hadn't planned to. I knew from what Sean had relayed to me before he left that I was very much on the PC's persona non grata list. They would be looking for any reason possible to be rid of me, and frankly I couldn’t figure out why that hadn't been the agenda in the first place.

Scarlet and I were more in sync after everything that happened in Utah, as if it had opened up a more direct line of communication between us. She was still in the background, but I better understood her reactions to things and used them to my advantage. She, on the other hand, seemed more okay with taking a back seat rather than trying to fight her way to the forefront; it was as if she trusted me.

I played with the platinum band on my finger, turning it over and over again until my skin beneath it warmed from the friction. I'd made up my mind; I was letting Scarlet out and prayed she'd be well-behaved. I knew Peyta was going on a date with the boy she'd met on Thursday night and since it was safe to assume that Cooper would be out at the club, I planned to do it then.

* * *

I waited nervously Thursday evening as Peyta got ready to go. When she emerged from the bathroom she looked gorgeous. Peyta was a truly beautiful girl and knew how to play it up with a little makeup and a great outfit – every bit her mother's daughter. She'd asked to borrow some boots, and nearly fell over when she saw my collection in the closet. She picked a pair of cognac-colored riding boots and pulled them on over some skinny but not skintight jeans. With a white, flowing racerback tank top and gray cardigan sweater, the outfit was nearly complete. She had one side of her hair tucked behind her ear, and in a moment of genius, I grabbed a white, ornamental gardenia and pinned it in her raven-colored hair. The contrast of white on black was stunning.

Her makeup was subtle, but her chocolate brown eyes practically jumped off her face. They were by far her most stunning feature. She dabbed at her neutral lip gloss as I looked on, assessing the coverage of her outfit.

“I'm all set. How do I look?” she asked, doing a spin around once for me.

“If he doesn't want a second date he's a moron,” I said, laughing. “I'm not sure if that's good or bad, though.”

“Do you think Cooper would approve?” she asked shyly.

“Nope. He'd send you back in there and make you put sweatpants and a hat on. Preferably dirty ones,” I replied.

She giggled in response as she grabbed her cell phone and wallet, putting them in her brown clutch purse.

“I won't be too late,” she said.

“No, you won't. Your mom said to be back by eleven at the very latest.”

“You talked to my mom about this?” she asked, looking like I'd blown the whistle on her.

“I'm not trying to shoot myself in the foot. Your mom is my supplier, I can't afford to piss her off,” I said, smiling at her from across the room. “Have a good time, but be careful.”

“Don't worry, I will,” she said as she walked out the door, stopping short before it closed behind her. “Are you sure you're going to be okay by yourself? Do you need me to do anything for you?”

“I'll be fine,” I protested. She'd been helping me almost non-stop since I “slipped in the tub” and hurt my back. It was oddly endearing to see her so caught up in her date that she almost forgot all about me.

“Are you sure?” she asked with a frown.

“Positive. I'll just be sitting here staring at the clock until your arrival…at eleven o'clock sharp.”

“Ugh…that's so early,” she groused, feigning annoyance before turning up the wattage on the smile she couldn't contain despite her best efforts. She started to close the door behind her, but I got one last shot in as she did.

“ELEVEN!” I yelled after her. I wondered if interactions like that were what sisterhood was like. It was kind of fun riding her.

Right after she left, I got up and locked the door behind her, wanting to make sure I had some fair warning if I was going to be interrupted. I went to my bedroom, closing and locking that door behind me as well. I looked down at my ring and thought it was so funny that such a small thing withheld such a powerful being. With a sigh I said a little prayer under my breath and pulled the little silvery band off, tossing it on the bed.