Unleashed (29 page)

Cordelia shook her head and looked away. “No,” she said, but Katelyn knew a lie when she heard one.

One look at her leg was enough to get Katelyn out of P.E. The coach sent her to study hall, where she spent the time with her head on her desk, praying the day would end.

When the bell rang, she decided to track down Sam and resume their conversation from Friday night. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Sam had been about to tell her something important.

Yet after Katelyn had looked what felt like everywhere, Sam was still not to be found. Her headache got worse and she considered calling her grandfather, but wanted to make it to lunch so she could talk to Cordelia.

At lunchtime, Katelyn studied the stained-glass window of the saint with the wolf as she and Cordelia passed beneath it. Why would the priests put a wolf in a church window? There had to be another story there.

They left the main building and headed on dry brown grass to a scattering of old-fashioned picnic tables. It was chilly, but Cordelia had insisted they go outside to eat.

As Katelyn opened her lunch bag, she wondered if Ed’s peanut butter had gone rancid. Her sandwich stank. More
mild
symptoms?

“Hey,” Trick said, trotting up beside Katelyn. “How did it go at the clinic?”

“We’re having a girl lunch.” Cordelia’s tone was flinty, unwelcoming.

Trick looked at Katelyn for confirmation. Embarrassed, she nodded, and he shrugged, his face a mask. “Sorry,” Katelyn said. “It went fine.”

“Good.” He looked relieved, then gave Cordelia a cold glare before turning to leave. Katelyn watched him as he wandered over to a picnic table where a couple of the kids from Sam’s party were sitting, but Sam was missing.

“What is it between Trick and—” Katelyn began, but Cordelia cut her off.

“You said it wasn’t a dog.” She was very tense. “So what was it?” Cordelia’s knuckles were white where she clutched her lunch bag. She stared at Katelyn as if her life depended on the answer.

Katelyn let out a breath. “I got a flat tire and I was fixing it, and it … it dragged me. Oh, God, I thought it was going to kill me.” Suddenly her head throbbed in pain and she had to stop. She clutched her temples and took a deep breath.

“What?
What
dragged you?” Cordelia demanded. She didn’t seem to notice or care that Katelyn was in pain. Her eyes were wide, desperate-looking.

Katelyn looked back at her and didn’t want to tell her. She didn’t know why, but she struggled with herself.

“Tell me,” Cordelia whispered.

“A wolf.”

Cordelia stared at her. She blinked several times, and then she contracted her shoulders and stomach, as if she had been punched.

“
What
?” Cordelia whispered.

The secret was out and instead of feeling better, Katelyn felt worse. There was so much fear she’d been keeping to herself. She wanted—needed—Cordelia to believe her, to understand. “A wolf. I’m sure it was the same one that attacked Trick and me.”

Cordelia covered her mouth with both her hands. “Oh, Kat,” she said. Her voice was quiet and flat.

“Friday night it dragged me into the woods. I got away, but it came after me. And it bit me.”

“It
bit
you?” Cordelia echoed. Something in her expression changed and she stopped and grabbed Katelyn’s arm and looked her square in the eyes as she asked her next question. “Did it break the skin?”

Her voice was so intense it frightened Katelyn. “It’s okay.” Katelyn hastened to reassure them both. “I’m getting rabies shots.”

Cordelia sat, frozen and silent. She stared at Katelyn as if her friend were speaking in a foreign language.

“I know.” Katelyn scrambled to explain herself. “I’m too stupid to live. But I didn’t
plan
to be out alone in the woods. I mean, if my grandfather found out—”

“
Kat
,” Cordelia said, her voice low.

Katelyn couldn’t stop herself, spilling details, knowing she probably sounded insane. “I’m stuck. I don’t want my grandfather to know I completely ignored what he told me to do, but what if this is the same animal that went after Haley and Becky? It went after me. I know this sounds crazy, but it was like it was
waiting
for me. Like it knew who I was. I mean, I was in two different parts of the forest, yet the same wolf shows up in both places? I should say something, right?”

“
Did it break the skin
?” Cordelia repeated herself, voice shrill.

Heads swiveled their way, and Cordelia slowly lowered her hands to her sides. Cordelia was staring at her as if she’d never seen her before in her life. It frightened Katelyn almost as much as the wolf had.
What is happening? Is she afraid of rabies?

“Cordelia, the shots are just in case. You won’t catch rabies from me or anything.”

Cordelia just kept staring.

“I’m all messed up,” Katelyn said. “My sense of smell is whacked and my eyesight sort of telescopes or something. My ears are so sensitive it sounds like people are yelling at me.” Katelyn was speaking faster and faster, desperate to get her story out, desperate for someone to know she was scared. “I told them at the clinic, and they said it’s the shots. But it’s so extreme. I’ve been having these nightmares about the wolf. It’s attacking me and laughing at me and its blue eyes are
glowing.
”

“Blue eyes?” Cordelia echoed. “Are you sure they were blue?”

Katelyn took a deep breath and really looked at Cordelia. The other girl was chalk white and she was shaking.

“Are you okay?” Katelyn asked. Then it hit her. “You
do
think it’s what attacked the other girls. You think I should tell my grandfather about it?”

“No!” Cordelia shouted.

People at the other picnic tables looked at the two of them. Katelyn’s ears were ringing from the shout. “Cordelia, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Cordelia lowered her voice and took a huge breath. She looked like she was about to throw up. “You—you were right. I’m just … freaked out for you and glad that you’re okay.”

Katelyn didn’t believe her. Not a word.

“What happened to
you
over the weekend?” Katelyn asked her. “Because I know something did.”

“Maybe you should go back to L.A.” Cordelia was trembling now. “That’s what you need to do. Go home.”

Then, to Katelyn’s amazement, Cordelia got up, ran across the grass, and disappeared inside the building.

12

K
atelyn’s head began to throb harder as she jumped to her feet and stared in the direction Cordelia had disappeared. She tried to call after her, but a sharp pain exploded in the back of her skull. Her knees buckled, and she might have fallen, except that Trick was there to catch her. His hands gripped her tightly as he helped her sit down on the bench.

“What’s up?” he said.

“Head. Ache.” She bit off the words in a strangled whisper.

“With you and Cordelia?”

“Girl stuff,” she said, barely able to speak. The sun was too bright. The rays were practically stabbing her eyes. She was even more unnerved by Cordelia’s reaction. “My head is killing me. Can you call my grandfather to come and get me?”

“Hell with that. I’m driving you home,” he informed her.

They didn’t speak much on the drive through the forest. Her head hurt too badly, and she was too freaked out. What was up with Cordelia? Why had she panicked? And told her to go back to California?

Finally she nodded off, waking up when she felt the car stop and heard the engine go off. They were at the cabin.

“Stay,” Trick ordered her as he climbed out of the Mustang. He came around to her door and opened it as her grandfather was hurrying down off the porch.

Ed bent over her, studying her face.

“Katie?” he said. “How bad is it?”

“I should have taken her to the clinic,” Trick said.

“No. It’s the shots,” she told them both. She needed to be alone. She had to think everything through.

“You should lie down,” her grandfather told her. “You need help up the stairs?”

“No. I can do it. Thanks, Trick.”

“Got your back,” he assured her, walking behind her and her grandfather.

Exhausted, her head still pounding, she left the two downstairs as she went into her room and fell into a fitful but dreamless sleep. When she came down for dinner, Trick had gone. Katelyn was quiet, her mind swirling with everything that had happened—that was happening. What was wrong with her? And why had Cordelia lost it?

The smell of the food—vegetable soup and corn bread—made her queasy; outside, in the darkness, the drums pounded, echoing against the mountains, making her want to scream. She lingered at the table, trying to get something down, but it was no use.

“I’m going back upstairs,” she finally announced.

“Rest up, honey,” her grandfather said. “Come and get me if you need to.”

She nodded and trudged back to her room.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep
.

I shall do thee mischief in the woods
.

Hot breath on her closed eyelids. Sharp claws on her leg, where the bite was. Where the sutures closed the torn skin back together
.

Katelyn, you are marked
.

You are mine
.