Dead Is a State of Mind (7 page)

Chapter Fourteen

When the big day arrived, I was greeted at my locker by Samantha, who held a big balloon bouquet. I was touched that she had remembered.

"Thanks, Sam!" I said. "You're the first one to wish me a happy birthday."

"That's just sad," she said. "What about your sisters? Your mom?"

"Oh, besides them," I said. "We all went out for a birthday breakfast at Slim's. And we're celebrating with Grandma Giordano this weekend."

And Ryan?"

I looked away. "I haven't talked to him."

Sam didn't say anything, but we were both thinking the same thing. What kind of boyfriend doesn't even remember his own girlfriend's birthday?

"How about if we celebrate tonight?" Sam suggested. "We can check out the restaurant in the Wilder mansion."

I gave her a look of disgust. "Going to Elise Wilder's house isn't exactly my idea of a happy birthday."

"Oh, I'm sure she'll be holed up in her private quarters," Sam said. "She's not very social, in case you haven't noticed."

She seemed plenty sociable with Ryan.

"Come on," Sam pleaded, "I've got to go up there to approve the final menu for prom, anyway. I stretched the entertainment budget to include a few munchies. We're going there to sample the food."

I finally agreed. Maybe I could find out more about my rival.

Sean walked up as we were talking and wrapped his arms around Samantha. "Can I come with?"

"You can tag along as long as you remember your manners," Sam said.

Sean waved at Ryan, who was walking down the hall. "Hey, bro, wait up. Wanna go to dinner with our ladies?"

Inwardly, I wanted to kill Sean. It was clear that Ryan couldn't stand to be in the same room with me. I certainly wasn't his "lady" now, if I'd ever been.

Ryan skulked back to where we stood. "Where are you going?" Still no eye contact. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked like he hadn't had a shower in the last few days. He didn't seem to notice the balloons I held.

"That Wilder place," Sean replied.

"I'll meet you there," Ryan said, and walked away.

Samantha looked me up and down. I had to present a class project that morning, so I was more dressed up than normal, which meant instead of my usual jeans, I was actually wearing a skirt. Which meant I passed (judging from her expression, barely) Sam's standards of appropriate dinner attire.

After school, Sam drove us to Sean's, and the two of us waited in the car while Sean went inside to change.

"Have you decided yet?" she asked me the second Sean was inside his house.

"Decided what?"

"If you're going to keep waiting for Ryan to ask you to prom or if you're going to take Duke up on his offer."

"Like Duke's hanging around waiting for
me."
I didn't want to admit that I was still over the moon for Ryan, even though lately he was acting like he'd forgotten I existed.

Samantha raised an eyebrow and gave me a look.

I finally understood her unspoken message. "He can't be," I said. "Girls are lining up for the chance to date Duke Sherrad, gypsy fortune-teller and hottie."

"He hasn't asked anybody else," she said. "Plenty of private readings with the competition, though."

Somehow, I didn't like the idea of Duke alone with someone else. "What about Ryan?" I protested.

"What about him?" she said. "He has to know by now that prom is coming up. You need to remind him that you have options, too."

The conversation ended when Sean returned, but it lingered in my mind on the ride over. What did Sam mean by her "options,
too"
comment? Was Ryan exploring other options? It certainly looked like it. Was it truly over for Ryan and me? Should I give Duke a chance?

When the mansion came into view, I held back a gasp. It was gorgeous. It looked like a medieval castle, complete with creeping ivy and stone walls.

The inside of the Wilder mansion was also breathtaking, positively dripping Old World elegance. Great, the competition was not only gorgeous; she was loaded. Not that money and power mattered to Ryan, but I did feel slightly intimidated.

We waited in the lobby until a dark-haired woman in a severely cut black dress led us to our table. It wasn't until we sat down that I realized she was the woman I'd noticed with the Paxtons at Mr. Davis's memorial service.

She smiled at me. "Enjoy your meal, Daisy." I checked her name tag. It read
BIANCA
. The mystery shifter's name was Bianca.

We were seated at a lovely table overlooking the garden. Faded pink roses climbed the wallpaper, and real crystal shone on the crisp linens covering the table. I noticed that all the utensils were made of gold. Werewolves hated silver. Silver bullets and all that.

Samantha stared at Sean until he pulled out a chair for her.

He started to take his seat but then remembered to pull my chair out, too, since Ryan still hadn't shown.

We waited almost half an hour, but he didn't appear.

"He's not coming," I said glumly. "We may as well order." I was trying not to cry, but despite everything, I didn't think Ryan would forget my birthday.

Sean motioned to the discreetly hovering server and we ordered.

The service was excellent, the food delicious, but I could have been eating my English lit essay for all I tasted it.

Ryan's not showing on my birthday was a sign that our relationship was ending. I never thought of myself as the kind of girl who sat around waiting for some guy to ask her to prom—heck, a few months ago, prom and Ryan Mendez both seemed out of reach—but here I was, waiting.

And I was sick of it.

"I'm going to take a walk," I said as the server cleared our plates. "I won't be long."

Bianca said, "There's a hedge maze at the rear of the garden. It's one of our most popular attractions and dates back over a hundred years." She pointed to the French doors. "It's right through there."

I noticed there was a pamphlet display case full of maps of the maze, but I ignored it. I was too angry to stop.

I went through the double doors and spotted the maze at the far end of the garden. The Wilder house's gardens were extensive, and any other time I might have stopped to enjoy the smell of jasmine and honeysuckle. I also noticed bushes covered with pink flowers, but I didn't know what they were called. They were the same kind that grew around Mr. Davis's cottage.

The longer I walked, the madder I got about Ryan's no-show. By the time I entered the hedge maze, I was steamed. What was going on with him? And how much longer did he expect me to put up with it without an explanation?

The night air cooled my overheated skin. The moon illuminated the path through the high, manicured hedges but concealed as much as it revealed.

A dog barked in the distance and was answered by a low growling sound. The noise sent a shiver through me. Why had I come out here alone? Why hadn't I taken a map of the maze? I didn't have the greatest sense of direction, something I'd neglected to consider when I set out.

Something rustled in the bushes and I jumped, but it was only a harmless rabbit. It was as scared of me as I had been of it, and it scurried off down the opposite path. I walked on, determined to make my way out of the maze.

I turned left and then left again, pausing when I thought I heard something. A minute later, I heard a low growling and I froze, straining to hear it again, but the only sound was the mournful sigh of the wind.

I made a right turn and came to a dead end. There was someone behind me, breathing softly, but I didn't want to turn around. I was trapped. After an agonizing minute, I whirled around and saw a huge, slavering beast. I had seen a creature like this once before, at a Nightshade City Council meeting. There was no mistaking it for a normal wolf. My mind processed that I was looking at a werewolf, and this time, not from a safe distance. It put its head down and made a whimpering sound before turning and trotting off down the path to the left.

Panic overtaking me, I ran down the opposite path, mindlessly following the twists and turns of the maze. When I finally reached the exit, winded and sweating, the beast had vanished.

Chapter Fifteen

When I got home, the house was quiet. I called to Midnight, but she was nowhere to be found. She was probably sulking in a corner somewhere because I hadn't been home to give her her kibble. I felt a little guilty.

I jumped when I saw Nicholas Bone sitting at our kitchen counter.

"Hi, Nicholas," I said cautiously. "Where's Rose?" I tried not to make it obvious that I was inching toward the spot where the calendar hung. I wanted to check the moon's cycle, as he tended to turn rather furry during a full moon, and I wasn't looking forward to a repeat performance of my encounter in the maze.

"She's changing," he said. "We're heading to the Black Opal later."

He noticed what I was doing and cleared his throat. Who says werewolves are all bark and no brains? "There was just a full moon a couple weeks ago, Daisy. Remember?"

Embarrassed, I looked over at him.

Nicholas had his arm in a sling, and it was also wrapped in what looked like about a million bandages from the incident on the night of the last full moon. It looked like a lot more than a little bitty accident, and I wondered why Rose had downplayed his injuries.

"Sorry," I said, feeling silly for panicking. I paused before sheepishly asking, "How does it work, exactly?"

Nicholas stared at me in amusement. "Being a werewolf?"

I nodded. "Is it possible for them to shift even if it's not a full moon?"

Nicholas sighed and looked down at his injured arm, as if reliving painful memories. "When you're young—when the gift first manifests—it's nearly impossible to control. It can happen anytime."

I recalled Wolfgang Paxton's spontaneous wolf-out at the memorial service. "It must be scary to have that overtake you when you least expect it," I said.

"It is," Nicholas said. "But it gets easier as time goes on. As a fully mature Were, I only shift during the full moon. It took lots of training, but I can control the beast within me."

I thought about it. I really was ignorant about what it meant to be a Were. I wouldn't make that mistake again. I knew how I felt when people treated me differently. First when I was the only norm in the family, and then when I got my powers.

"I think I know what you mean." At his look of surprise, I continued. "It's like with my powers. I can't always control them. Sometimes they control me. But I'm working at it, and I'm getting better at making them do what I want to do, instead of the opposite." I paused for a moment, chewing on what he had told me. "So I guess the Were I saw tonight must have been a youngster."

Nicholas's eyes widened. "You saw a Were tonight? Where?"

I explained what happened in the hedge maze at the Wilder mansion. "Do you think it could have been Elise?" I asked.

"Hard to say," Nicholas said cryptically. "Whoever it was, I wouldn't worry too much. They obviously didn't intend any harm."

"Yeah, I guess I got off easy," I said, gesturing toward his arm.

Suddenly Nicholas sniffed at the air. "What's that smell? It's coming from you."

"Thanks a lot," I mumbled. I wasn't wearing any perfume, so I wasn't sure what odor he could be referring to.

"Check your pockets," Nicholas said, zeroing in on the source.

I was wearing the same jacket I had worn to the park a few nights ago. I hunted through the pockets and pulled out the shriveled plant Midnight had been playing with when I found her.

He took it from me and sniffed it. "I can smell oleander, mixed with a faint hint of M&Ms."

"Oleander? Isn't that poisonous?" It was a good thing I had taken it away from my kitten.

"You should be careful with that," Nicholas warned. "Oleander
is
poisonous, but you can find it almost anywhere. Where did you pick this up?"

"Right by the fountain in the park. Where they found Mr. Davis's body."

A niggling thought was forming at the back of my mind. Could this oleander be somehow related to Mr. Davis's death? I couldn't figure out how to tie it to the murder, except that I'd found it in the same location.

Rose swept into the room, wearing a sparkly orchid-colored tank top perfect for clubbing.

"Tell Mom I won't be back until late, okay, Daisy?" she said. She winked and gave a little nod toward Nicholas. That's when I realized that her lips hadn't moved. I still wasn't totally used to the whole telepathic thing. I was used to Rose being able to read my mind, but not the other way around. And I blushed bright red when I realized where, exactly, her mind was. I did not need to have an image of that in my brain.

I headed to bed, but I couldn't sleep. I was too wound up with the thought that a volatile werewolf was on the loose in Nightshade. I shuddered as I remembered its eerie eyes and huge teeth.

There was a loud bang as an object hit my bedroom window. I jumped and then peered out.

Ryan stood below my window. "Daisy, come outside. I need to talk to you," he said in a carrying whisper.

I held up my hand and said, "I'll be right down." But before I did, I took a look at myself in the mirror. Frizzy hair, pale face, and ratty old pjs. Not exactly the image I wanted Ryan to carry with him, even if I was mad at him.

I quickly put on a cute hoodie over my faded boy-band T-shirt and put my hair into a ponytail. I added a little lip gloss and then scampered down the stairs as quietly as I could. I snagged a breath mint out of my purse in the hallway, where I'd thrown it earlier.

"Hey," Ryan said. He was sitting in the swing on the front porch. "I'm sorry I didn't make it to your birthday dinner. Something came up." I was about to roll my eyes after having to hear yet another one of his excuses when he held out a small, brightly wrapped package.

I sat next to him and opened the present. It was a gold locket. It looked old.

"It was my mom's," he said.

"Ryan..."

"I want you to have it. She used to say it would protect her from harm. Will you please wear it?"

And then I was in his arms and he was kissing me like his life depended on it. He didn't stop kissing me until we were both hot and sweaty and way too overheated.

Somehow, I'd ended up on my back, pressed against the seat of the swing. I put out a hand to his chest to slow things down, but I only had time to gulp in some air before Ryan bent toward me and nipped my lips, hard enough that he drew a little blood.

"Hey, watch it!" I said. He'd never done that before. It hadn't really hurt, but it had startled me.

Ryan sat up, breathing heavily. "Daisy, I'm sorry. I ... I don't know what's gotten into me lately."

"What's going on with you? It seems like I never see you anymore, but then you show up here"—I looked at my watch—"at midnight."

"I wanted to talk to you," he said in a low voice. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's okay," I said, trying not to let him know that I was blushing. "I was startled, that's all. I'm glad you're here. I wanted to talk to you, too."

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

About a million things. Elise, where he'd been lately, the werewolf. Where to start?

"Did your dad hear anything new about Mr. Davis?" I began. It seemed like the easiest place to start a conversation, but I was wrong about that.

Ryan tensed and looked away. "What about him?"

"Well, have the autopsy results come back yet?"

"I don't know," he replied tersely.

I sighed. "Well, until they do, I guess we won't know what killed him."

"It wasn't a werewolf, if that's what you're thinking," he said in a snotty tone of voice.

Why was he so defensive? Was it because his precious Elise was a shifter? "I didn't think so before, but now I have my doubts."

"What do you mean?" he snapped.

What was wrong with him? I couldn't even talk to him anymore. "Christy's mom saw claw marks on Mr. Davis's face." I ignored the fact that Nicholas had already confirmed that a human had made the marks. I had no reason to doubt Nicholas, but somehow, my mouth just wouldn't stop.

"Since when do you listen to gossip?" His voice was shaking with anger.

"It's not just that," I said. "The other night in the park, I heard howling. And just tonight, I came face-to-face with a werewolf!"

He stood so suddenly that he set the swing rocking furiously. "Do you know anything about werewolves? Their strength and speed? You could get hurt."

"Ryan, why are you so mad?"

He didn't answer at first. "This was a mistake. I've got to go."

"Ryan—" But he was already letting himself out of the front gate.

"Just let it go, Daisy," he called over his shoulder. "Let my dad handle the investigation." Then he ran down the street and disappeared into the darkness.

What just happened? I was baffled by Ryan's behavior. He couldn't deny that there was a werewolf on the loose in Nightshade. And even though I liked Nicholas and Chief Mendez, they had connections to the Nightshade City Council—and they could be covering up for the killer. No matter what Ryan said, I wasn't butting out of this investigation. Not a chance.