Five: Out of the Dark (25 page)

He’d lost all control of his body and emotions—that must be such a horrible thing for a strong, independent leader-type boy. He was scared. I could see it clearly now. And, knowing Johnathan as I did, I was sure he wasn’t scared for himself. He was terrified he would hurt someone—I imagined the thought of hurting anyone was bad, but the thought of hurting one of us was almost more than he could bear. Hitting me with the force of a hurricane, I finally understood that he was serious about leaving. That he was thinking about it right now.
The only thing that’s keeping him here is the knowledge that we can lock him in a circle and keep him from going wild on the city of Seattle. If he could figure out a way to lock himself up during the full moon, he would be gone in a heartbeat.

The thought of him leaving was so much more terrifying than anything else, including limb-amputating killer trees, that I knew I would summon a Demon. I would do it soon. No more pussyfooting around. No more
research
. Tonight had to be the last time Johnathan
turned.
My focus shifted then and there from Mr. Jorgenson and his designer drug, to curing Johnathan. I still planned on doing what I could to stop the
soul-gazing
, evil principal, but that cause would come second.

Johnathan looked up into the mirror and caught my determined stare. I didn’t look away. I wanted to convey to him my determination—and my faith in him. He got a quizzical look on his face and tilted his head to the side. I just smiled at him. A smile, I’m sure, that didn’t reach my eyes. A smile that said,
You aren’t going anywhere, and I will make sure of that
.

He shook his head in confusion and broke the gaze first.

We gathered our supplies—Alec made sure to include marshmallows—and headed for Frink Park around four that afternoon.

Thanks to Alec and Seth, the walk to the park wasn’t as glum as it could have been. They spent most of the time trying to burn each other with insults. Even Johnathan couldn’t help but laugh a couple of times.

It all started when Alec said, “A thought just crossed my mind …”

He was promptly interrupted by Seth. “A thought crossed your mind? That must have been a long and lonely journey.”

“Keep talking, Seth; someday you’ll say something intelligent.”

“Do you ever wonder what life would be like if you’d had enough oxygen at birth, Alec?”

“Hey, Seth, by the way, the zoo called, the baboons want their butts back, so you’ll have to find another face.”

“Wow, really, Alec? I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup and poop a better insult than that.”

“Johnathan, speaking of faces, ya’ know what I like about your face?” Alec asked.

Johnathan shook his head.

“Yah, me neither.”

“Alec, I’m not gonna get into a battle of wits with you, I never attack anyone who’s
unarmed
,” Johnathan retorted.

That cracked me up—in a silent, wheezing sort of way.

“Ah, Johnny, I was just kiddin’. You’re lucky to have been born beautiful, unlike me, who was born to be a big liar.”

Johnathan rolled his eyes. He did have a half smile on his worried face—for which I was grateful to Alec and Seth, even though they were both dorks.

“I don’t ever think I could learn to like you, Alec,” Seth said. “Except maybe on a deserted island—with no other provisions in sight.”

“Seth, I really admire you ‘cause it’s been said that what you don’t know, can’t hurt you—and that means
you’re
invincible!” Alec laughed hard at his own wit. The rest of us laughed at him laughing at himself.

The two of them traded barbs the rest of the way to Frink Park. I stopped keeping track of their awesome mental powers when I became lost in thought; making seriously scary plans for the next week.

There were a few people milling around the park. Luckily this wasn’t a very popular park. I think few people even knew about it. We went back to the fire-pit area where we’d been last time and began setting up wards of silence and concealment. This took some time; we’d hurried it last time out of necessity and probably weren’t as protected as we should’ve been.

We had about an hour and a half before sunset. Alec started a fire in the pit while I drew the containment circle with chalk on the cement. The atmosphere was subdued as we sat around the fire and roasted marshmallows on small limbs Seth cut from surrounding trees. Even the two barbsters couldn’t improve the mood. We mostly sat in silence and burned more marshmallows than we ate.

Johnathan became agitated as the moonrise-sunset approached. He couldn’t sit still; he paced back and forth in front of the fire. When he started to make little growling noises under his breath I said, “I think it’s time, John. Let’s bind your hands and then I’ll close you in the circle.”

For just an instant his eyes flashed yellow and his muscles tensed like he was going to bolt—Johnathan and The Wolf were battling for control. Johnathan won out—this time—because he stepped over to where Seth held the roll of duct tape and submitted his hands to him.

“I think we should tape them with your palms together, prayer style. Any other way and I’m afraid when your … when the … the claws pop out they might do some damage to your hands,” Seth said. He was having trouble looking his friend and leader in the eyes.

“Whatever,” Johnathan mumbled.

Seth wrapped Johnathan’s hands together from fingertips to halfway up his forearms with several layers of duct tape. Alec—surprisingly silent—stepped up and touched the tape that encircled Johnathan’s hands. He looked up at Johnathan for a second before closing his eyes and bowing his head in concentration. He muttered some words I couldn’t quite make out while Johnathan stared up into the cloudy sky.

Nothing noticeable changed about the tape. Alec tested it by finding the end and pulling softly at first, and then with much of his considerable strength. The binding didn’t budge. Alec smiled as he stepped back. “You test it now, Johnny,” he said.

Johnathan tried to pull his hands apart, they stuck fast.

Halli and I stood. We were cutting it a little closer than I’d wanted to and his agitation was increasing by the minute. I could see the muscles under his skin rippling. “Step into the circle, Johnathan,” I whispered. He slipped his shoes off, not wanting to walk home bare-footed again.

He gazed longingly at the open trail leading into the woods. He shook his head, squared his shoulders, and stepped into the circle. Halli joined me on the opposite side of the circle from where I stood. I pricked my finger and wiped the drop of blood that formed there onto the circle at my feet. Halli and I sent our will into it, urging the circle closed … but it didn’t close.

The sun disappeared and a small rim of white peeked up over the tree line, and Johnathan let out a half-howl, half-scream as he started to double over. He stepped outside the circle, then his hungry, golden eyes found mine, locking me in place.

I flashed back to the party … the wolf’s dripping fangs … the trees. I couldn’t move. Luckily, Seth could. He whipped out his channeling rod and pointed it at Johnathan.

“
Immobile
!” Seth shouted.

Johnathan became still as stone and fell to his back. I snapped out of my petrification and helped Seth and Alec drag his transforming body back into the circle. As we laid his writhing body on the ground I noticed that a stray clump of melted marshmallow had landed on one line of the circle—the flow of magic had been interrupted. I kicked at the marshmallow and redrew the circle quickly, knowing the immobile curse Seth had used wouldn’t last long. I re-pricked my finger, dripped more of my blood onto the circle and Halli and I joined forces to will it closed. The familiar
snap
resonated in the clearing, and Johnathan was trapped.

I never would have thought it possible, but this changing was worse than the first time, for me and for Johnathan. Me, because I kept flashing back to the drug-induced hallucinations I’d had just two nights prior. Johnathan, because the Wolf was even angrier this time. Binding his hands did prevent him from gouging himself, but it also made him freak out in a far more intense way.

He tore at the tape with his two-inch-long teeth, sometimes missing the tape and tearing into the skin of his forearms. Alec was surprised and more than a little proud of himself to find that not only did his binding spell keep the tape intact and Johnathan’s hands together, it also turned out to be impenetrable—even by werewolf teeth.

The werewolf slammed his head, shoulders, and body into the invisible barrier surrounding him; and pushed, pulled, bit, and stepped on his bound hands, trying to free them. A couple of hours into this nonstop aggression, a large cut opened on his left eyebrow after a particularly hard smack against the barrier. I’d been cowering as far from the circle as I could and still be within our protective wards, rocking back and forth with my arms wrapped around my knees, trying not to think about the horror of this night combined with the horror of the
Sentience
after-effects
.

I was unable, however, to tear my eyes away from the wolf’s face, dripping with blood—part of me was able to process that somewhere inside the terrible monster was Johnathan.
And I love Johnathan.
So when the blood started pouring down the matted fur of his muzzled face, I was transfixed. Even more so when I noticed the wound was rapidly healing, as if an invisible surgeon was knitting the skin back together. Within a matter of minutes, where the gaping laceration had been, was just a pink line of newly healed skin partially obscured by clumps of bloody fur.

The night dragged on. I couldn’t bear to watch, yet my gaze kept returning to the torture within the circle. Halli tried her best to distract me, to get me to rest. I couldn’t. She gave up after a while and just sat beside me, offering her silent support. I’m sure she and the others were feeling anguish, too—just not as strong as me. After all, he was the boy
I
loved … and I still blamed myself for what had happened to him. I forced my thoughts away from the scene playing out before me.

I silently made plans for how and when I would summon a Demon. I knew exactly which one I would summon. The only one whose name I knew. If only I’d questioned the Faerie that brought the monster-changeling into our midst before I’d sent her back to the Netherworld. I should have been summoning her. Or, trying to summon—I had no idea if I was strong enough. I pushed those thoughts from my mind
.

I will admit, the thought of what I had to do was terrifying. If there was any other way I could think of to get the information I needed, I would do it. The fact was, I was running out of time—I would not let Johnathan suffer through this again.

I worried about what the Demon would ask in return for answers I was seeking—all the time knowing I would give him whatever he asked. I worried about being unable to contain him in a circle—thus, allowing him to roam free on our plane, wreaking havoc on any humans he was to come in contact with. I also worried that Johnathan or I would not survive the attempt to remove the curse. If so, I selfishly hoped it was me and not him that didn’t survive.

Those were the thoughts that went through my mind all during the dismal night; Johnathan’s howls and the sound of his body slamming into the circle made for the perfect horror background noise to play along with the scenarios and dread that floated through my head.

Just as I began lamenting about this seemingly endless night, I looked to the east and saw just an inkling of yellow shining through the trees. I looked back at the Wolf and held my breath as he appeared to calm a tad. Then, a tad bit more. By the time the sun—still not above the tree line—brightened enough to scare away the moon, the Wolf was transforming back into Johnathan. The process looked and sounded extremely painful. I heard his bones and joints snapping in and out of place; watched his muscles and skin stretch far beyond what should have been possible without breaking. I covered my ears so I couldn’t hear his bones cracking or the sounds of his groans.

But I kept watching. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the transformation. The changing was awful, horrible and nearly mind-destroying to watch. But I couldn’t stop.

Soon, it was over. Johnathan lay trembling inside the circle, shirt ripped to shreds, basketball shorts thankfully intact.

“Let’s go let him out,” I whispered to Halli.

With a surge of will from us, the circle was broken. I knelt close to him, and as much as I wanted to reach out and touch him, to comfort him, I knew that was a monumentally bad idea. He lifted his head in slow motion. He avoided my gaze and that of our friends; shame and embarrassment apparent on his face.

“Come on, Johnathan. Let’s get that tape off your hands,” Alec said, all the teasing of the evening before gone from his voice.

Johnathan held his hands out in Alec’s direction, resting his elbows on his knees, head bowed to rest on his arms. Alec removed the binding spell, then unwound the tape from his friend’s hands and arms with more gentleness than could be expected from any teenage boy in this universe or any other. I must admit my perception of Alec changed just a little in that moment—I felt a warmth in my heart for him much stronger than the friendship we’d built on a foundation of amusement and battling of foes together. I would never tell him that, though.

“Okay, Johnny Boy, all done,” he said with teasing gentleness.

Johnathan sat there for a few minutes, his forehead still resting on his arms, his exhausted limbs trembling. When he lifted his head with a look of weariness I’d never seen before, I found the thin, pink scar cutting through the tail-end of his left eyebrow where a deep gash had been just hours before. His beautiful, dark, curly hair was a mass of dried blood and sweat. His normally tan skin was flushed red—I felt heat radiating off him even though I kept a safe distance of two or three feet from him.

Oh, man, it was hard to keep from reaching out to touch him. I rocked back and forth on my knees, the anxiety taking over. Johnathan looked at me, finally, and surprised me by reaching over and touching my face. He’d reached over to wipe the tears from my cheek. Tears I hadn’t even realized were there.