Hemlock (36 page)

I drew back my bedroom curtains and pushed open the window, saying a quick prayer of thanks that Ben’s apartment was below ours and had almost the exact same layout.

I laid the crowbar outside and then wiped my palms, which were slick with sweat, on my jeans. I couldn’t believe I was doing this. Hank had always said it was smarter to go in a back window than a front door; I just never thought I’d be in a position to listen.

The rusted fire escape groaned under my weight as I crept down to Ben’s apartment. The windows in the building were ancient and drafty, but each one was accompanied by an inside storm window that locked and kept out the worst of the wind and rain.

I peered into Ben’s room and let out a sigh of relief: he’d left the storm window up.

I slipped the edge of the crowbar under the outer window frame and, grunting with effort, put al my weight behind forcing the window up until it was just high enough for me to slide my hands underneath. After that, it was easy to strong-arm it up until there was a gap big enough for me to climb through.

Once inside, I let out a shaky breath.

Once inside, I let out a shaky breath.

I was realy doing this. I had realy just broken into Ben’s apartment to look for evidence that he was working for the Trackers.

I felt like I had swalowed a wasp’s nest: my stomach twisted as though thousands of wings were beating against its lining and my skin itched like insects were crawling beneath the surface.

If Ben realy had hurt Amy, it would destroy Tess.

And if I found anything, Kyle would leave. He was coming back only to help me find out what had happened to Amy. As soon as we did that, he’d be gone.

I started with the dresser. Socks. Boxers. T-shirts. A box of condoms—ewww! No empty vials or memos on official Tracker stationery.

The closet was similarly evidence-free.

Think. I had to think.

Where would Ben keep stuff he wouldn’t want found?

Not anyplace Tess might look. And Tess was a total snoop.

I headed for the spare bedroom. There was a computer in the corner—the screen displaying a password prompt—and a couple of cheap bookcases crammed ful of paperbacks. After a few failed attempts at guessing Ben’s password, I started flipping through the books, thinking maybe he had stashed things between their pages. I was shaking a copy of
The Road
when I noticed three framed photographs on one of the shelves.

There was a picture of Tess—one I recognized from a day the three of us had spent out by the lake—and a photo of a striking, slightly older redhead who smiled as she shaded her eyes from the slightly older redhead who smiled as she shaded her eyes from the glare of the sun. The other picture was of a boy with the same gray eyes as Ben.

They had to be Ben’s brother and mother.

Something about them was vaguely familiar, but I wasn’t sure why.

A key scraped in the lock and my heart jumped to my throat.

When I was halfway back to the other bedroom, the front door opened.

I went completely stil as Ben stepped into the apartment, sniffing like he had a cold.

His eyes locked on me and he froze. “What are you doing in here, Mac?” He looked different. Harder. Older.

I strained to make my voice sound normal. “I was looking for Tess. Your door was open.”

“She went over to Jason’s to see if you were there. Amy’s mother caled. She told Tess you stopped by and seemed upset.”

He shut the door and took a step forward. “She was worried about you.”

“Oh.” I glanced down—like I was embarrassed for causing so much trouble—as I tried to buy myself time to think. “I’ve been missing Amy a lot lately. I was walking around and I just sort of ended up at her house.”

Ben took another step forward and my head snapped up. He looked genuinely concerned, but when he tried for a reassuring smile, it didn’t reach his eyes. And he was between me and the front door.

front door.

Acting on impulse, I said, “I guess Tess told you about what happened last night. At Serena’s.”

Ben nodded. “You could have been kiled.”

My blood turned to ice water as I struggled to keep my expression blank. I hadn’t told Tess a thing about what had realy gone on last night; if Ben knew what had happened, he had heard it from the Trackers.

Something flickered in his eyes, some realization that he had said something wrong. Before he could work it out, I turned and bolted for his bedroom.

I slammed the door shut and turned the latch. The knob rattled so hard that it sounded like Ben was trying to rip it out of the wood with his bare hands.

“Mac? Open the door! I just want to talk to you.”

I ran for the window and made it halfway through before the door burst open.

Ben grabbed my legs and I desperately wrapped my hands around the metal gril of the fire escape.

He puled so hard that it felt like my shoulders were popping out of joint. I managed to hang on—barely—and, when he loosened his grip to get a better hold, I kicked back as wildly as I could.

It didn’t matter. He was two times my size and had leverage.

A nail on the window frame caught Amy’s bracelet as Ben dragged me back inside. The leather string snapped and coins went raining to the ground below.

I tried to scream, but he put his hand over my mouth before I could manage a single decibel.

could manage a single decibel.

Ben wrestled me to the ground, pinning me so that I was flat on my stomach with my cheek pressed to the cold floor. I thrashed and squirmed, but I couldn’t stop a thin line of fire from piercing my arm. A needle.

Just before everything went black, I felt Ben brush the hair away from my face and heard him whisper, “I never meant for you to get hurt.”

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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

“YOU REALLY SHOULD GET UP.” AMY LEANED OVER me, the ends of her hair skimming my cheek. Her face seemed almost luminous in the darkness.

I blinked and weakly batted the hair away.

We were surrounded by low, rounded stones and faded plastic flowers. I was on a bench in the cemetery. “How did I get here?” I asked, struggling to sit up. I was so tired. Every muscle in my body asked, struggling to sit up. I was so tired. Every muscle in my body felt like lead.

What was wrong with me?

“Ben has this whole thing about drugging girls,” Amy said, answering the question I hadn’t asked out loud. “You’ve been in and out of consciousness for a few hours. Your dreams were totaly out of commission.”

“Am I dead?”

Amy shook her head. “Not yet—but you wil be if you don’t wake up.” She gripped my shoulders, her fingers digging painfuly into my skin. “You have to wake up. Now!”

Like a mirror hitting the floor, the dream shattered and I rushed back to consciousness.

I was lying on my back and I could smel cedar and earth.

Rough dirt scratched against my bare forearms and dampness seeped through my clothes. I was too scared to open my eyes. It was the logic of a child: if you don’t open your eyes, the monster won’t see you.

It took me a minute to realize that the pain surrounding my wrists and ankles came from ropes and that there was something in my mouth. I choked on the gag, my eyes flying open as I panicked. I couldn’t get enough air.

“Breathe through your nose.”

Ben’s face gradualy swam into focus. I could see the night sky and a blanket of stars behind him. What had he shot me up with?

How long had I been out?

Jason and Kyle must have left Hemlock with Serena and Noah hours ago. With a sinking feeling, I realized two things: I had no hours ago. With a sinking feeling, I realized two things: I had no way of knowing if they had made it safely past the checkpoint, and there was no one to help me. Trey might stil be in town, but he would have no idea what had happened after he had dropped me off.

I was on my own. Completely and utterly.

I turned my head, trying to ignore the sensation that it was splitting open. We were in a smal clearing that could have doubled for any patch of forest outside of Hemlock. And we weren’t alone.

Branson Derby stood a few feet away, arms crossed. “Ian, I told you to stay away from her.”

Ian?

Ben opened his mouth like he was on the verge of replying.

Then he shook his head, stood, and backed up a few paces.

I breathed through my nose and tried not to surrender to the feeling of complete dread that threatened to overwhelm me. It was a losing battle. I stil couldn’t get enough air and spots hovered in front of my eyes, making it hard to see.

Derby walked over to me and withdrew a long hunting knife from a sheath on his belt. Moonlight bounced off the blade.

He knelt next to me and I shied away as the knife approached my cheek.

Derby gripped a handful of my hair to keep me from moving my head. “Given al the trouble you’ve caused, I’d be happy to let you pass out. Unfortunately, I need you conscious.”

A smal line of hot pain stung my cheek as he sliced through the gag. When he puled back, the edge of his knife was stained with a gag. When he puled back, the edge of his knife was stained with a thin trace of my blood.

I opened and closed my jaw, loosening it, even though the movement made the cut on my cheek burn and pul apart. My tongue felt like it was wrapped in gauze and my head throbbed in waves of pain.

Derby stood. He wiped the knife on his pant leg before putting it away.

“You didn’t have to cut her,” said Ben, the hint of a growl in his voice. He sounded angry, but his nostrils flared and he licked his lips—he looked like Jason did when he was itching for a drink.

Even in the faint light, I could see perspiration on his forehead.

It was the blood.
My
blood.

“You’re infected.” The words were a raspy whisper, but Ben stil cringed. I knew there was ground underneath me, but I was in free fal. Ben was a werewolf. Ben was
the
werewolf. He hadn’t just drugged Amy and handed her over; he had torn her apart.

Maybe he had kiled al of them. “Tess trusted you. I trusted you.”

“I . . .” Ben shook his head, his blond hair faling over his eyes.

“I told you not to get involved with that woman. It’s complicated everything.”

Ben stared at the ground. “I wanted something normal.”

“You don’t get to have normal, Ian.” Derby regarded Ben like he was an insect: mildly interesting but, ultimately, disgusting. “You keep forgetting you’re one of the monsters.”

Ben raised his head. He was close enough that I could see the muscles in his arms twitch underneath his skin. “I could never forget that. Not after the things you’ve made me do.”

forget that. Not after the things you’ve made me do.”

“It was for the greater good,” snapped Derby. “You know that.

You didn’t have any objections until the Walsh girl, and then your squeamishness almost ruined everything. If I hadn’t stepped in—”

A shril ring cut through the air and Derby slid a phone out of his pocket. He glanced at the display and then strode away, pressing the phone to his ear.

I’d been kidnapped and was lying trussed up like a hog and he was
taking a call
?

I took a deep breath. At least I knew I was somewhere with cel reception—though I wasn’t sure what good that did me.

“So you realy kiled Amy?” The words came out in a shaky rush. I wanted to hear Ben say it. I needed to hear him say it. The cold from the ground seeped into my body.

He only nodded.

“She
trusted
you. She
liked
you.” A wave of dizziness hit me.

“I liked her, too,” Ben murmured.

Each word stung like the lash of a whip. “Don’t say that.” I choked with the effort of speaking. “Don’t you
dare
pretend that you cared about her. You kiled her. You drugged her so she couldn’t even fight back!”

Ben stalked forward, and I recoiled as he crouched next to me.

His eyes bored into mine. “I drugged her so it wouldn’t
hurt
,”

he snarled. “So that she wouldn’t be scared.” He shook his head.

“The rest of them were so scared. I didn’t want that for Amy.”

“I’m sure that wil be very comforting to her.” I swalowed and blinked away tears. “I’l let her know when I see her.”

Ben made a strangled sound in the back of his throat. Looking Ben made a strangled sound in the back of his throat. Looking like he was going to be sick, he swore softly and stood.

When I had seen the white wolf on the street, it had been Ben.

He’d gone after Kyle, but he’d held back from attacking me. His words in the apartment echoed in my head:
I never meant for you
to get hurt
.

Maybe he realy didn’t want to do this.

“It was al just so Derby could get to Senator Walsh, wasn’t it?

Why would you let him use you like that?”

He didn’t say anything.

“Ben . . . please . . .”

He shook his head and puled at his colar, like it was choking him.

Ben never unfastened the top button of his shirt. He was always worried the scars on his torso would show; he always thought people would stare.

The puzzle pieces slammed together with such force that I would have staggered if I hadn’t already been on the ground. I suddenly realized why the woman and kid in Ben’s pictures looked so familiar.

“There was never a car accident, was there?” I whispered. “The scars are from a werewolf attack.”

Ben stared at me, eyes wide and gray. The same gray eyes as the boy’s in the photo—the boy I had first seen in Derby’s slide show the night of the Tracker meeting.

“Branson Derby is your father. That’s why you’ve been helping him.”

him.”

I turned my head. Derby had returned and was watching us, the barest hint of a smile on his face. “I wish Jason had been able to recruit you,” he said, almost sadly. “It’s not often someone surprises me.” He walked over to Ben and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Maybe it was a trick of the shadows, but it looked like Ben flinched.