Midnight Howl (6 page)

The growl came again, and my eyes snapped open.

My heart was still pounding from the dream.

As it steadied, I realized the growl was thunder. I was lying on the picnic blanket. The sunny sky had turned black with ominous-looking clouds while I slept. I sat up, and a cold wind whipped me in the face; I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered. The horses whinnied and pulled at their ropes.

Jack and Hailey were both napping on the blanket next to me. “Wake up, you guys,” I said, shaking Hailey.

She rubbed her eyes and groaned. “Oh, wow, did we fall asleep?” Once she focused, she frowned. “It’s going to storm,” she said.

Jack had woken up, too, and he looked nervously at the sky. “It’s gotten cold,” he said, shivering. “We’d better get out of here.” They both scrambled to their feet and hurriedly started gathering the stuff from our picnic.

“What’s the big deal?” I asked, catching on to their urgency. I scrambled to get the brownie remains into my backpack. “Why are you freaking out? So we get wet.”

Hailey fastened the top of her backpack and slung it onto her shoulders. “With the change in the weather, this might be a blizzard. We need to get home fast,” she said grimly.

“A
blizzard
?” I said, looking back and forth between her and Jack. “It’s
September.
We just had a
picnic.”

Jack shrugged. “It happens. We’d better head back right away.”

An icy raindrop hit my face. At the edge of the clearing, the horses were shaking their heads and pawing at the ground.

I’m not going to be able to get on her,
I thought, looking at Snowflake. There were no steps out here. But what choice did I have? Jack boosted me up, and somehow I settled into Snowflake’s saddle. Jack
handed me the reins and was fastening the leading rein to her harness when thunder cracked again, directly overhead.

Snowflake reared, yanking the rein out of Jack’s hands. With a surge of speed, she bolted into the woods with me clinging to her back.

We were charging straight toward branches, and I bent low over the horse’s neck, trying to shield my face. I wrapped my hands in the reins and hung on to her coarse mane, trying to squeeze her sides with my legs as tightly as I could.

Snowflake was galloping along, and each step was so jarring I felt like I was going to fly right off her back. A pine branch brushed hard against my side, and I closed my eyes. I couldn’t get any lower, and I didn’t want to see what I was going to hit. I just concentrated on staying on the horse.

Thunder rumbled right overhead. I heard my own ragged panting as the storm broke and the icy rain began to pour down over us. Snowflake tensed and began to gallop even faster. I suddenly pictured her losing her balance on this uneven ground, stepping in a hole, falling, and rolling on top of me.

For a second, I thought maybe I should let go and fall off before that happened. But then I opened
my eyes. We were going so
fast.
There was no way I could fall off, even on purpose, without getting really hurt.

I had thought I was holding on as hard as I could, but I forced my cold, wet hands and legs to cling tighter. My clothes were soaked. Something cold and sharp stung my arms and then my face. The rain was turning into hail.

I whimpered as Snowflake lurched, but she caught her balance and ran on. Her sudden swerve made me look to one side, and I thought I saw something gray and yellow. It was gone before I could blink. Had it been one of the elusive wolves of Wolf Valley? Then again, maybe it had just been a ragged bush.

I shrieked as we suddenly burst through a net of thin branches with a sharp cracking noise and found ourselves out in the open again.

There was something big and dark in front of us, and I could feel Snowflake slowing down. Then she stopped and stood calmly.

I took a big gasp of air and started to sob. We were back at the house. Snowflake had run home.

I couldn’t move. I just sat there, clinging to Snowflake, shaking and crying as the hail pounded
against me. Snowflake shook her head and shifted from side to side, looking back at me as if she was asking why we weren’t going to the barn yet.

After a moment, Hailey and Jack galloped into the clearing. The hail had turned to a light, slushy snow.

“Marisol!” Jack called, pulling Shadow to a halt and jumping down to run toward me. “Are you okay?” Hailey dismounted, too, and led the horses toward me.

“I was so scared for you!” she said, her voice shaking. “We didn’t know if you would be able to hold on.”

I managed to stop crying, but I couldn’t talk without starting again, so I just shook my head.

“You’re okay,” Jack said reassuringly. He held up his hand to help me down. “Take it easy.” My fingers were numb, but I managed to untangle myself from the reins and slide off Snowflake’s back.

Hailey hugged me. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “We shouldn’t have given you Snowflake when you can’t ride.”

I sniffed and hugged her back. “You didn’t know it was going to storm. I’m okay.”

The door of the house burst open, and my mom,
Mike, and Molly came running out with umbrellas and towels. I let go of Hailey, and my mom wrapped me in a towel, holding me tight.

“Oh, Marisol,” she said. “We were so worried when the storm started.”

Behind us, Molly was scolding Jack and Hailey for not heading home earlier, and they explained that we had all dozed off. Mike took the bridles off the horses and led them toward the barn. Hailey moved toward him to help, but Snowflake veered away from her, and Hailey stood back.

The horses are still scared of her,
I thought.

“Everything’s fine now,” my mom said, pulling me into the house. But I wasn’t so sure.

The snow didn’t last long, and neither did my shakes (although it was going to be a
long
time before I got on a horse again). By Monday, the weather was sunny and I was feeling fine. I had even gone into the stables and fed Snowflake some carrots on Sunday, just to show her there were no hard feelings. “Everyone gets scared,” I told her, stroking her long brown nose.
Even me,
I thought, recalling my suspicions about Hailey.

Why had the horses been afraid of her? Had it really just been the smell of the rosebush spray? Had Tasha’s silver test worked? What had Molly meant when she said her family was mixed up in the werewolf stories of Wolf Valley? And, most of all,
where had Hailey gone the night of the full moon? I’d tried to ask her about it again Sunday night, but she had just looked me right in the eye and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Monday I decided to track down Anderson and see if he knew anything more. This ended up being sort of embarrassing — when I’d asked Amber where his locker was she said, “Why?” and then, with a knowing look, “Oh, I
see
.” And then, “Ew. No offense.”

“It’s not like that,” I’d insisted, but she just smiled at me.

I found Anderson at his locker.

“The lovely Marisol,” he said, grinning and trying to sound suave. “What’s shaking, baby?” He leaned against his locker and spread his arms wide. “Anything I can do for you? My locker is your locker.”

“Uh, okay,” I said, a little embarrassed. He was
such
a goofball. “Whatever. I wanted to ask you more about werewolves.”

His eyes widened and he gave me a big, toothy smile. “You believe me!”

“I’m not sure what I think,” I said slowly. “I wanted
to find out more.” Anderson straightened up and got serious. He was clearly flattered that I was coming to him for his expert opinion.

“Well …” he began, “they’re people who turn into wolves, usually during the full moon.”

“I’ve gotten that far,” I said, trying to be patient. “What more do you know?”

He started telling me the same stuff I’d heard from him before, about his great-great-grandmother’s neighbor, about long ring fingers and pointed ears. And the fact that, as far as he knew, there had always been stories that there were werewolves around Wolf Valley, but that he didn’t know of any real proof. “People would like to prove it,” he said. “Lily acts like I’m nuts, but a lot of people around here believe there are werewolves in the woods.”

“Have you heard anything about werewolves and silver?” I asked.

“Well,” he said, “the traditional way to kill a werewolf is with a silver bullet. Silver is supposed to be a metal that has to do with the moon, so maybe that’s why.”

“But can werewolves touch silver?” I asked. “They don’t burst into flames or feel horrible pain?”

Anderson frowned. “I never heard of that. Are you thinking of vampires and crucifixes?”

“No,” I replied, shaking my head. “Do you know of any actual tests to find out if someone is a werewolf? I know vampires don’t like garlic, crosses, mirrors, or sunlight, but what about werewolves?”

It would have been easier if I had suspected Hailey was a vampire. There seemed to be a lot of ways to make sure about vampires.

He thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I don’t think there’s anything dramatic like with vampires and crosses. Some cultures say werewolves can’t cross running water, but that’s a pretty common thing to say about supernatural creatures in general.

“Wait a second,” he said, his eyes widening. “Are you asking me this for a reason? Do you think you know a werewolf? Do you have a
suspect?”

“No, I’m just wondering,” I said as I backed away quickly. “Thanks, Anderson. I’ve got to get to homeroom.”

“Seriously,” Anderson said, following me a few steps. “Is it Mr. Bonley? Because I’ve always thought he might be one. He’s really aggressive, you know?”

Mr. Bonley was the gym teacher. He was pretty hairy, and really into competitive sports, but I didn’t think he was a werewolf. “I told you,” I said. “I don’t think anyone’s a werewolf. I was just curious.”

I could have kicked myself. Why had I trusted some play from Tasha’s summer camp? One year, they’d done a version of
Romeo and Juliet
set in a spaceship! And Romeo had rapped half his speeches! I definitely had more research to do.

All day I watched for Hailey. I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility that she was a werewolf. Math was the only class we had together, and, as usual, she seemed to be paying no attention at all. She was busy doodling in her notebook. When Mr. Swithin, the teacher, suddenly called on her, I winced in sympathy.

“Hailey, what does
x
equal in this problem?” he asked.

“Seventeen,” she said, without looking up. Her answer was correct.

Wow, I thought. I’d never heard that werewolf powers included mind reading or knowing when you
were going to be called on in class, so Hailey was probably just really sharp.

Hailey sat with Amber, Bonnie, Lily, and me at lunch again, and I was happy to see her. Though I was a little freaked out about the idea that she might change into an animal, Hailey had been really sweet to me since the horseback ride. Her being so nice made me feel guilty for thinking bad things about her.

“So is everyone going on the camping trip?” Amber asked as she neatly laid a napkin in her lap and began cutting her mystery meat loaf into eight equal-size pieces. “Of course Lily is.”

“Oh, I have to go,” Lily said. “And you’re coming, right, Marisol? She’s the newest member of the astronomy club,” she explained to the others.

“I wouldn’t miss it,” I said eagerly. “I’m really excited. I haven’t gotten to use my telescope since I got here.”

“Because of the wolves,” Bonnie said, nodding.

Hailey snapped to attention. “Wolves?” she asked.

“Yeah, you know,” Bonnie said, eyeing her. “The local news always says not to go out alone at night because of the wolf pack around here? They do all those stories about the dangers of wild animals?”

“Oh.” Hailey stared down at her lunch. “Yeah. You know, that’s really unfair. Wolves aren’t aggressive toward humans. Did you know there were less than thirty documented attacks by wolves on humans in the whole twentieth century? And only three of those were fatal, and those were all because of rabies. You’re way more likely to get attacked by a dog or a bear, even in areas with a high wolf population.”

“It’s true,” Lily said calmly. “Wolves have a bad reputation they don’t deserve.”

“Well, but how many people actually go right up to a wolf and don’t get attacked?” Amber asked.

“Usually, wolves aren’t that close to people, so no one knows. And I think it’s still a good idea to stay away from wild animals,” Lily replied. Hailey frowned.

“Anyway,” Bonnie said, clearly bored with the subject of wolves, “I’m definitely going on the camping trip. It’s going to be the most fun thing to happen all fall. Are you coming, Hailey?”

Hailey blushed. “I don’t know,” she said.

“It’ll be totally fun,” Bonnie said. “Jack and Marisol are both going. You’re not going to sit home alone, are you?”

“I guess not,” Hailey said shyly.

“We couldn’t do it without Jack,” Bonnie said, and she and Amber looked at each other and laughed. It hadn’t taken me long to realize that half the girls in school had a crush on Jack.

“Oh yeah,” said Hailey, smiling now. “Who else would bring the food?”

“Is it weird for you, having Jack for a brother?” Bonnie asked curiously. “I mean, he’s always involved in everything. This school would practically shut down without him. And you’re … quieter.”

Amber flinched a little. We all knew Bonnie hadn’t meant it that way, but what she said sounded sort of like:
Jack is an important part of this school You’re not.

Hailey frowned.

Then she reached up and touched the star necklace around her neck, sighed, and smiled. “It’s not weird at all,” she said. “Jack’s Jack, and I’m me, and we’re fine. We’re twins, and we’re friends, too, but we’re different people.”

“Absolutely,” I said. “And Jack’s learning to bake pies, so Hailey and I are two very
lucky
people.”

We all laughed, and the awkwardness passed. I added another reason to my list of why I felt guilty about thinking Hailey might be a werewolf: She was clearly making an effort to get along with people (even if, as Jack said, she liked animals better). And I was starting to really like her.