Hemlock (27 page)

“Then why didn’t it hurt me?” I stared miserably at the buldozed ground in front of the car. “It was ful-on Cujo when it went after you. Something about me stopped it. It was almost like it recognized me.”

“Cujo was a Saint Bernard.”

“Not the point.” I slumped in my seat, suddenly so tired and confused that I was on the verge of tears. “I can’t believe you’re joking about this.”

Kyle climbed out of the car and walked around to the passenger side. He got back in. After a moment, he reached for my hand.

“I’m sorry. It’s just . . .” He shook his head and traced a circle on my palm with his thumb. “Maybe your knack for saying stupid things when you’re worried is rubbing off on me.”

things when you’re worried is rubbing off on me.”

“I don’t say stupid things,” I muttered. “Not always, anyway.” I leaned over and rested my head on his shoulder. I wondered if this was a violation of his friends-only rule. Surely there was some loophole for near-death experiences.

He reached over with his other hand and brushed the hair back from my face. After a minute, he gently eased me away, freeing his shoulder and leaving a very platonic amount of space between us.

“Not even Bishop thought Jason was actualy a werewolf. What makes you think it was him?”

Kyle’s voice was careful—almost free of recrimination—but disappointment flashed in his eyes and I cringed.

“I don’t. Not realy.” I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to thwart the chil that pierced my chest as I thought of the way the wolf had stared at me. “At least, I know I shouldn’t. I mean, Jason is one of my best friends, and you were right when you said he couldn’t hurt anyone. At least the old Jason couldn’t. But he hasn’t been the old Jason in so long. I just . . . I don’t know.”

Kyle watched me patiently, waiting for me to make some kind of sense.

“It was wiling to go after you, but something about me stopped it. It could easily have torn out my throat”—Kyle flinched—“but it didn’t. It was almost like it was fighting itself, the way it kept shaking its head.”

“So you think Jason would be wiling to kil me and not you?

Thanks.”

“You guys did seem ready to tear each other to pieces this morning.”

morning.”

“Not even remotely the same thing.” He exhaled slowly. “Even if it did recognize you, that doesn’t mean it was Jason. Besides, do you realy think he would join the Trackers if he was infected? Or that he has the impulse control to keep his temper in check and not shift every time he has too much to drink or someone looks at him the wrong way?”

I blushed. The more he spoke, the stupider it sounded. And the guiltier I felt for saying it out loud. For even thinking it.

“Jason’s my friend—even though he’s turned into an idiot. He would never have hurt Amy. And no matter what he’s done, he doesn’t deserve to have you—or anyone—think that. For al you know, Bishop has an ax to grind against Jason’s father, or Derby somehow figured out you would go there and put him up to messing with your head.”

I stared at the dashboard, stomach queasy with guilt and skin flushed with shame. Kyle was right. He was right and I was horrible. Horrible and disloyal. “Forget I said anything,” I whispered. “Temporary insanity brought on by stress and another brush with death.”

Kyle didn’t say anything. After a minute, I did what felt like the bravest thing I’d done al night: I looked up and met his eyes.

“You know what I think?”

I shook my head.

“I think you were waiting for Jason to realy let you down. I think some smal part of you was ready to believe what Bishop said, to believe the worst of him.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s not true. Or fair. I told him I sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s not true. Or fair. I told him that Jason didn’t do it. You were there. You heard me.”

“You said Jason
couldn’t
have done it, not that he
hadn’t
,”

Kyle clarified. “And I heard the way your voice trembled. I was standing close enough to hear your heart speed up as you listened to Bishop.” The expression on his face was impossible to read.

“When you expect someone to let you down, it’s easier to believe the worst of them.”

I swalowed. “And you think that’s how I feel about Jason—like I expect him to let me down?”

Kyle shook his head. “No. I think that’s the way you feel about al of us—anyone you let get close.”

I blinked, stunned. I felt like I’d been slapped.

“It’s okay,” he said. “It’s just the way you’re built. Growing up how you did—it’s probably understandable.” Frowning, he reached out and brushed his hand against my cheek, wiping away tears that I hadn’t realized were faling. “But it does make loving you hard, sometimes.”

I opened my mouth to argue, to tel him that he was wrong, but then his last sentence registered. “What did you say?”

Kyle ignored my question and reached for the door handle. “I’l drive us over to Trey’s. We should head out before it gets any later.”

I unbuckled my seat belt and lunged across his lap, grabbing his hand before he could open the door. I let out a guffaw of pain as I practicaly impaled myself on the gearshift. “What did you say?” I repeated, voice low and breathless.

repeated, voice low and breathless.

Kyle stared down at me. The Adam’s apple in his throat bobbed as he swalowed. “That can’t possibly be comfortable.”

He reached down and gently helped me into an upright position.

I ended up sitting on his lap with my legs stretched out onto the driver’s seat and my back pressed against the passenger door.

“Did you just say you loved me?”

Kyle blushed and nodded. “Not great timing, I know. Especialy after I told you I wanted to go back to the way things were.”

It felt like a thousand birds were taking flight inside my chest.

“Kyle?”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up.” And then I was kissing him, pressing my hands to the sides of his face as his arms strained around me.

I put everything I had into the kiss, al the things I didn’t know how to find the words for—the fear that I had almost lost him, the relief that he was al right, the worry that he would leave. I clung to him like I would never let go as Kyle kissed me back with an intensity that made every nerve in my body hum.

“You’re stil crying,” he murmured, moments or hours later, between kisses and breaths.

“It’s a girl thing,” I whispered, my lips brushing his.

Kyle’s hand slipped under my shirt and jacket, tracing circles on the skin at the smal of my back. I shivered and he held me closer for a moment, then moved away slightly—just far enough so he could study my face. “I thought it would be easier if I left without admitting it—like if I never said the words, it would stop being true.”

true.”

The bottom dropped out of my stomach, like I was on a roler coaster that had just jumped the rails.

Kyle sighed and his hand stiled on my back. “But every time I almost lose you, I feel like part of myself gets chipped away. And the thought of leaving just gets harder.” He withdrew his hand and pushed his hair back. “I’m probably not making any sense.”

I pressed my forehead to his. “You could just stay.”

His lips curved up in a sad smile. “You make it sound so easy.”

I shook my head and puled away. “No,” I said, and I knew my voice came out desperate and a little lost. “You just always make things too hard.”

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

.....................................................................

KYLE LOVED ME. KYLE LOVED ME AND HE HAD TOLD ME he loved me and I . . . hadn’t said it back. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to.

Sitting next to him in the car, studying his profile in the dashboard Sitting next to him in the car, studying his profile in the dashboard light, I wanted to say those words.

More than anything.

Because I did love him. I was certain of it. It was in the way I felt when I looked at him and the taste of his name on my lips and how three years of history had brought us to this point.

I was sure.

And I knew—from a thousand books and sitcoms and movies

—that the words should be easy to say. Even if I had never said them. To anyone. In any capacity.

But each time I opened my mouth, they stuck in the back of my throat.

We passed a darkened bakery and a gas station where you could buy live fishing bait, and then the houses began thinning out.

Trees closed in on both sides and Kyle switched on the high beams as we left the last streetlight behind. Technicaly, we were stil inside Hemlock, though you’d never have guessed it.

I’d once heard Ben tel Tess that he wouldn’t mind owning a place out here. He said it was close enough to town to be convenient but far enough out that you had the ilusion of quiet. I bit my lip. Ben hadn’t been home when we swung by to drop off his keys and explain about the truck. I’d ended up leaving the keys—

along with a very apologetic note—on his kitchen counter.

“Why didn’t you talk to Trey before Bishop?” asked Kyle, cutting off my thoughts.

I shrugged. “I tried to talk to Serena about the cals yesterday and she totaly stonewaled me. Neither of them was at school today. I guess I was hoping Bishop would say something that today. I guess I was hoping Bishop would say something that would give me some sort of clue before I tried talking to either of them again.”

“Very Nancy Drew.”

“I don’t remember Nancy Drew ever having to deal with werewolf murders,” I muttered, suddenly gloomy.

Serena’s friendship was important to me, and I knew that once Kyle and I showed up there asking questions, it might become a thing of the past. As much as the idea hurt, I was wiling to risk it. If it led to answers, I’d risk anything.

“It’s the next driveway after this one. On the left.”

Kyle slowed and turned.

Serena’s house was set at the end of a wide, curving lane and wasn’t visible from the road. We rounded the last bend and Kyle muttered a curse. There were two cars and a familiar SUV

clustered in front of the Carsons’ white, two-story farmhouse.

“Back up,” I hissed. “Backupbackupbackupbackupbackup.”

Kyle couldn’t be near the Trackers. If they suspected what he was, they’d shove him in a cage. Or worse. “Oh God, Kyle, back up.”

His voice was sharp as he stared into the rearview mirror. “I can’t.”

I turned and looked out the back window. Another car, headlights dark, had folowed us up the driveway. It parked at an angle, blocking us in.

They had to be Trackers. Who else would Jason be hanging around with?

around with?

“You have to leave me.” Kyle started to object and I cut him off. “Run on foot until you can lose them in the trees, then shift.

You can get away if I’m not slowing you down.”

“What about you?”

“I’m human. They won’t hurt me.” I wasn’t actualy sure that was true, but there was less chance of them hurting me than him.

Kyle’s gaze swept the scene in front of the house. “That’s very noble.”

“So you’l do it?”

“Not a chance.”

A person—too smal to be Trey and obviously a girl—was pushed out of the house. She stumbled across the wraparound porch and down the steps. “They’ve got Serena.”

I glanced out the Honda’s back window just as two figures emerged from the car behind us.

I gripped Kyle’s arm. “No matter what happens, don’t lose your temper or shift. Don’t give them an excuse to hurt you.”

Voice grim, Kyle said, “Of the two of us, my temper isn’t the one we usualy have to worry about.”

A man wrenched open Kyle’s door. I recognized him. He was the one we had passed in the Meadows, the guy who looked like he could bench-press livestock. He was holding a Taser. “Out.”

“We don’t want any trouble,” I said as the Amazonian woman he’d been with earlier yanked open my door and grabbed my arm.

“We’l just turn around and leave.”

Without a word, she puled me out of the car and started dragging me up the driveway. She was incredibly strong. I tried dragging me up the driveway. She was incredibly strong. I tried breaking free, but it was like arm wrestling one of the guys on the footbal team: completely futile.

I glanced over my shoulder. Kyle was walking calmly in front of the other one. From the way the guy was standing behind him, I was betting the Taser was pressed against Kyle’s back.

I swalowed. This so wasn’t good.

The Carsons’ yard was lit by two smal lampposts on either side of the front walkway. As we drew closer, I was able to make out Derby, Trey, Serena, three more Trackers, and Jason.

Serena was kneeling on the ground, trying to help Trey, who couldn’t seem to lift his head. Jason watched them with the strangest expression on his face—almost like he didn’t know who they were. He was so focused on them that he didn’t even notice Kyle and me.

But Derby did. A surge of hatred flashed in his eyes before his hawklike features settled into a fierce grin. Next to the people he had with him—al younger and stronger—he should have seemed weak, but he looked oddly powerful and invigorated. A creature in his element who was completely in control.

We were so screwed.

“Miss Dobson. What a nice surprise.” His tone contradicted the words.

Jason glanced over and his eyes widened. He shifted his gaze from me and Kyle to the two Trackers who were keeping us in check. “What are they doing here?” His voice was curiously flat—

like that of a telemarketer or someone who had gone into shock.

He took a step toward me and stumbled slightly. He shook his He took a step toward me and stumbled slightly. He shook his head like he was trying to clear it.

“I believe your friends are here for the same reason we are: to talk to Trey Carson. After al, you gave Miss Dobson a copy of the police report.”

Jason flinched. Jason never flinched.

“Trey doesn’t know anything,” interrupted Serena, voice quavering. Her shirt was ripped at the shoulder and tears had made a mess of her mascara.

Derby stared down at her, eyes merciless. “We have reports that your brother is infected.”