The Waking (The Upturned Hourglass) (18 page)

When she reached Luci’s porch and turned around, it was only Jack that she found behind her. Shane and Noah had hidden themselves for fear of drawing too much attention.

Valie cut him off, saying, “I need time to think about what you’re telling me. I can’t process this instantly like you think I can and I certainly can’t make the decision to just
go
with you. I’ll see you later, Jack.” Valie turned to the door and dug around in her pocket for the key to the house that Luci had given her earlier that morning.

“This is a bad decision, Valie,” Jack said gravely behind her. “But alright. Have it your way. I know this goes without saying, but you can’t tell anyone about us.”

When Valie entered the house and turned to close the door, Jack, too, was gone.

Valie nodded mostly to herself. She wasn’t allowed to tell anyone that there were three people in Anders that were werewolves, human beings that could change into huge canines within seconds. Like there was anyone who would believe her…Well, there was
one
person.

STAYING TRUE

“Are you sure they’re not dangerous? I mean the werewolves of like folklore and things tend to be kind of dangerous…”

Luci was looking at Valie pensively from the other side of her gigantic, canopied bed. Valie had just spent the last two hours getting Luci up to date on all she’d missed—or that Valie had left out—from the last few days.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. They had plenty of opportunity to hurt me. Especially Jack…”

“And you really saw him change? Into a real, live wolf?”

“Yes….”

Valie nodded staring out the second story window. For a moment she thought she saw the shadow of a large dog cross the street to sit by the curbside, but it blended into the darkness and Valie tried to convince herself it wasn’t there.

“Okay,” Luci began with a renewed purpose to her speech. “Here’s what I think.”

Valie turned to the girl who was already ready for bed in her purple pajamas and black-cat slippers. “Let’s hear it.”

“Go with your instinct,” she said simply, shrugging. “Do you trust these guys?”

“Well, yeah. Sort of.”

“Sort of?”

Valie took a deep breath while she thought. “I do trust them, I suppose, but I feel like they’re keeping something from me.”

“The stuff about your dad?”

Valie stopped and looked at her, sickened. Just the thought that those
freaks
knew her real father absolutely appalled her. “They do
not
know my father.”

“You don’t know that,
Valie. . . .”

“And
you
don’t know that they do!”

Luci looked at her disparagingly. “I’m trying to be the voice of reason, for once, so just go with it okay?” Valie stifled her negative response and listened as Luci went on. “I know it’s hard for you to hear about your dad because of how it ended with your mother, but Valie, if they do know something, you should find out what it is, especially if he
is
one of them.” Valie looked at her questioningly, still trying not to speak. “Think about it. If he is a werewolf, you have to wonder how long he’s been that way? How long ago he was bitten?” Valie shook her head slowly. She still didn’t get what Luci was implying. “Valie! What if he was a werewolf when he was with your mom?”

Valie’s jaw dropped as her thought process caught up with her friend’s. “You think I’m part werewolf…” Valie whispered, horror-stricken.

Luci nodded solemnly, but excitement was in her eyes.

“You
like
the idea of that, don’t you?” she accused.

“No! No, of course not,” Luci replied, but Valie could see the guilt on her face. “But, come on. That whole thing about my being a…what was it called again?”

“A moth,” Valie murmured, refusing to meet her eyes. She stared out the window again as she tried to come to terms with what she was hearing. It felt like she was getting bombarded from the home front when Luci, her best friend, was supporting Jack’s ideas.

“Right.
A moth. I mean, that would explain a lot, don’t you think? My whole obsession with every supernatural thing I hear about. Why I find otherworldly reasons for everything. Even our friendship would…” She cut herself off.

“…Would actually make sense if I was part werewolf.” It was Valie’s turn to finish the difficult sentences.

Luci looked away. “Yes…Is it really that horrible to imagine?” she began to plead. “Why are you acting like it would be the end of the world? You’re still the same person! It’s not like you’ve changed. And hey! Maybe you could even learn some things about yourself. It’s an opportunity, Valie, not a death sentence. And if the rest of what they’re telling you is true, then maybe it’s in your best interest to believe them!”

“So you just want me to accept this?” Valie asked, incredulous. “You want me to accept werewolves and Vampyres and moths and whatever other crazies might be out there? You want me to accept that my own father is one of
them
? That
I’m
one of them? Why? Why should I believe all of that?”

Luci remained calm as Valie’s anxiety heightened. It was what made their bond so strong; they balanced each other. “You might not have a choice, Valie. And it would be better to
walk
down a path than get dragged down it.”

Valie shook her head. “You know I love you and I appreciate you not calling me insane or anything for all of this, but I can’t give up my reality that easily, Luc. I just can’t.”

“You
can
. You just
won’t,
” she muttered, finally frustrated. This was the kind of scenario
she’d
always dreamed about and yet Valie was the one having her life turned upside down.

Valie sighed and leaned back against one of the tall, white posts of Luci’s bed.
“Fine. I’ll admit that I really do believe them, but what about the stuff about my dad? What if he really does want to kill me?”

Luci’s excitement over the topic waned. “I think that you should go out on a limb to find out as much as you can without making any huge decisions.”

“That simple, huh?” Valie said sarcastically. She doubted anything was going to seem
simple
for a long, long time.

Luci smiled. “No.
Probably not. But it is a once in a lifetime shot. I wouldn’t want you to regret passing it up.”

“Translation—
You’re
intrigued and want to know more.”

Luci laughed into the pillow she was holding and pushed her glasses back into place. “Yeah, pretty much. But I am thinking of you, too. If your dad is really as dangerous as Jack, Shane and Noah seem to believe,
then I think you
have
to learn all you can.”

“Yeah…right.”

“While you’re at it can you ask about my moth-hood?”

“Moth-hood?
Really?”

She ignored Valie’s cynicism.

“Please?” Luci begged.

“We’ll see.”

The girl sighed and looked at her with sad, puppy-dog eyes that quickly made Valie relent. “Fine! Fine. I’ll ask, okay?”

“Thank you!” She leaned across the bed and hugged Valie around the neck. “You realize I love you no matter what, right?
If you’re human or werewolf or both or whatever.”

“I don’t really think that’s the issue, Luc, but thanks,” Valie laughed.

That wasn’t the issue at all. Valie
needed
answers to her questions—questions she wished would just cease to exist—and unfortunately Jack and the others seemed to be the only ones that could help her.

She looked out the window and caught another glimpse of a big wolf-dog across the street. Instead of fueling her frustration, a sense of expectation washed over the girl. Tomorrow would be the first day of a new life, a new reality. And, little did she know at the time, the conversation of that night would be the last real heart to heart she would have with her best friend for a very long time.

Valie couldn’t sleep that night; she was back to her usual topsy-turvy sleep schedule. What a night to lose the ability to sleep like a normal human being. Oh wait. That was right. She might not
be
a normal human being.

Valie tossed and turned on Luci’s floor in her heavy sleeping bag until, eventually, she gave up. In an effort to follow her instincts as Luci had suggested, she walked down the
staircase in nothing but her pajamas and a heavy overcoat. Her instincts told her that she would not be satisfied enough to go to bed until she had spoken to Jack.

Valie opened the heavy front door to the townhouse, closing it deftly behind her. Barefoot, she made her way down the damp, rain-washed steps onto the sidewalk and, almost immediately, a wolf trotted up from across the street. This wolf looked like the lean husky-like wolf that Valie had seen in the park and she wasn’t surprised to find gray eyes encased in the canine skull.

“Hey, Noah,” Valie greeted uncertainly, as she clutched her coat around her. She was getting cold. “I don’t suppose you can…you know…talk?”

The wolf gave an almost frustrated grumble before it ran away across the street behind a tall row of oleander lining the wall of a large house. A minute or so later, a lithe Noah sauntered across the street, pulling a dark t-shirt over his head. The kid was as skinny as Valie thought him to be, but he was muscular, too. She wondered if that was part of the werewolf persona, the trim bodies with practically zero body fat.

She shivered as Noah approached. He saw the minute reaction and slowed, stopping a few feet away.

“You’re up late,” he observed in his eternally calm voice.

“I don’t usually sleep at night.”

“Ah.”

The two watched each other for a time as Valie shifted from foot to foot, willing them not to freeze.

“You’re cold. You should go inside.”

Valie ignored his concern. She was still trying to disregard that feeling of trust beneath her fear that came with their presence.

“Why are you here, Noah?”

“To guard you.”

“Right.
Of course,” Valie said without an ounce of conviction. She still couldn’t believe their
entire
story, though the werewolf part was becoming difficult to deny.

“Why did you come out here?” he inquired.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I followed a friend’s advice and followed my instinct.”

“Interesting.”

“Not really,” Valie laughed. She still felt insane, but more comfortably so.

“You should probably try to get some sleep,” Noah suggested.

“One question and then I’ll go.”

Noah smiled more naturally.
“Alright, then.”

“When I asked why you guys think Luci is a moth, Jack pointed at you as an explanation. What was that all about?”

Noah seemed to find this question easy. “Before I was bitten, I was a moth, like your friend. Once I became a werewolf, that ability to sense the supernatural, that draw, heightened. I can sense and identify any of the Occult.”

“And you…
sensed
Luci?”

Noah nodded.

“I see.”

Noah cocked his head to the side, appearing very dog-like for a moment in time. It was interesting to Valie how their mannerisms seemed to changeover from one form to another. “Do you really see?”

“No,” Valie said with an honest smile. “But I do have more of an idea.”

An upstairs light turned on in Luci’s townhouse. It was coming from her parents’ room.

“I have to go!”

“Good night,” Noah said seeming in no rush himself.

“G’night!” Valie whispered loudly as she ran up the front stairs on her numbing feet. She tried to dry them before entering the house, but there wasn’t much time. She padded into the foyer and up the stairs after relocking the front door. Luckily neither of Luci’s parents came out of their bedroom as Valie wandered back to Luci’s room. One of them must have gotten up to use the bathroom.

Once inside the room, Valie quickly stepped to the window and looked out on the street. Noah was still standing where she left him, but now he was talking on a cell phone raised to his ear.

“She’s fine,” he said firmly as if he’d said it a million times. Valie’s heart fluttered as her mind went to Jack. “No.” Pause. “I don’t know why, but she doesn’t.”
Doesn’t what?
Valie thought.
“Because she came out here.” Pause. “Yes.” Deep sigh. Long pause. “Fine…It’s alright…I know…See you.”