Hemlock (32 page)

“Jason is young, charismatic, rich, and handsome. His girlfriend

—the granddaughter of a senator—was kiled by a werewolf.”
At

—the granddaughter of a senator—was kiled by a werewolf.”
At
least everyone thinks she was
, I added to myself. “He’s the perfect poster boy for them—if Derby can control him. I think he was hoping that kiling Trey would bind him to the Trackers.

Permanently.” It was just a theory, but it made sense.

Trey stopped pacing. He towered over me, glowering. “And you just invited their poster boy over. That’s just great.”

“Back off, Trey,” said Kyle. “She did what she thought was right.”

“Thanks,” I whispered, once Trey had stalked to the other side of the kitchen.

The look he turned on me wasn’t happy. “I said you did what you thought was right, not that I agreed with it.”

Anger I could have dealt with, but Kyle looked disappointed, and that, somehow, was worse.

Everyone froze at the sound of tires grinding up the unpaved driveway.

“Only one car,” said Kyle.

“Doesn’t mean there’s not more on the way,” countered Trey.

Serena stood and slipped out of the room. A minute later, she was back. “I told Noah to hide downstairs.” Her gaze locked on mine. “If the Trackers show up, you have to look after him.”

“Serena—”

She shook her head. Her eyes were wide and the expression on her face was desperate. “You’re the only one of us who isn’t infected. He’l have the best chance with you. You have to promise to take care of him.”

My stomach lurched. I had gambled everyone’s safety on the My stomach lurched. I had gambled everyone’s safety on the hope that Jason could be trusted. Suddenly, it seemed like too huge a risk to have taken on my own. My face flooded with warmth as I realized how very justified Trey’s anger and Kyle’s disappointment were. “I promise.”

Kyle watched me for a moment, like he knew what I was thinking, and then he scraped his chair back against the kitchen floor and got to his feet. “Wel, we can’t just leave him out there.”

Trey headed for the door, but Serena put a hand on his shoulder. “Let Mac and Kyle go first,” she said. “
Please
, Trey.”

Trey closed his eyes, took a deep, ragged breath, and nodded.

Hoping I hadn’t made a huge mistake, I stood and folowed Kyle through the back door.

We crossed a smal, shady porch and stepped down into the warm sunlight. Serena and Trey folowed us outside, but they hung back, sticking close to the house.

Jason was leaning against his SUV, arms crossed. There were dark shadows under his eyes and a cut on his lower lip. His shoulders were rigid and his gaze swept the yard relentlessly, like he was waiting for an attack. He hadn’t shaved and his clothes, under his jacket, were wrinkled. He clenched and unclenched his right hand, like he was aching to hold a drink.

He looked less like a perfect poster boy and more like someone on the run.

There was a shopping bag at his feet. Jason unfolded his arms and reached down. He hauled out a bundle of black cloth and tossed it to Kyle.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” muttered Kyle as he unroled a

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” muttered Kyle as he unroled a T-shirt with a replica of a
Respect Regs, Report Wolves
poster on the front.

Jason nudged the bag with his foot and glanced up at the porch.

“I’ve got a
Hunt or be Hunted
one for Serena.”

“I am
not
putting that on,” she growled.

Jason shrugged. “Fine. The Trackers have checkpoints set al around town. They know you’ve got a kid with you and wil probably have to travel by car. Feel free to try and get past them on your own.”

“And you think a couple of T-shirts wil get us past them?” Kyle crossed his arms.

“I’l be with you.” Jason tugged down his colar. “Whoever’s manning the checkpoint wil see my tattoo. They probably won’t bother making us get out of the car—especialy if you and Serena look like Trackers in training. Serena can make sure the kid stays down and out of sight. We drop them at some motel far enough away that they can lay low until Trey shows up, and then you and I head back in the morning.”

“What about Trey and me?” I asked, a sinking feeling in my stomach.

“You’re staying in Hemlock.” Jason’s eyes flashed and he suddenly looked every bit as deadly as Derby wanted him to be.

“And Trey can find his own way out.”

“I’m not staying behind,” I said just as Trey leaped over the porch railing in an inhumanly graceful movement.

He landed lightly in front of Jason. “You think I’m just going to He landed lightly in front of Jason. “You think I’m just going to let you drive off with my brother and sister after everything you’ve done?”

If Jason was frightened of standing a few feet from an angry werewolf, he didn’t show it. “Right now, you don’t have much of a choice.”

“He’s right, Trey.” Serena’s voice was resigned—almost hopeless—as she came down the steps. She walked past her brother and took a red T-shirt from the bag, holding it away from her body like it was toxic. “We have to cal Dad and tel him not to fly home tomorrow, and we’ve got to get Noah out. We can’t risk the Trackers hurting him to get to us and we can’t just stay here.

Sooner or later, they’l start watching anyone connected to us. Too many people have seen us with Henry.”

Trey whirled on her. “There has to be another way.” His lip curled back from his teeth and the words were more growl than speech.

“Look,” said Jason, “Kyle didn’t shift until after the Trackers left. They don’t know he’s infected, so they won’t be looking for him. They
will
be looking for you and Serena, but they won’t expect you to split up. The Trackers at the checkpoints are puling twelve-hour shifts. Seven to seven. We time it so we get there around six—when the first shift is almost over and the guys are tired—and then we make it through.”

“How do you know al of this?” I asked, a thread of doubt winding through me even though I had been the one to cal him. “I mean, the Trackers left you behind last night. Derby didn’t just email you the checkpoint roster.”

email you the checkpoint roster.”

Jason shrugged. “Derby’s not the only Tracker I know. As far as I can tel, he hasn’t told anyone not to talk to me. Not yet, anyway.”

Next to me, Kyle watched Jason with a thoughtful, considering look on his face. “It’s not the worst plan in the world,” he said, eventualy.

Despite the warm sunlight beating down on me, I felt a circle of cold in the center of my chest. “You can’t seriously be thinking of leaving me behind.”

“I’l come back,” said Kyle. “As soon as Serena and Noah are safely out of town.” His hand brushed mine. “I told you I’d stay until—” He caught himself, almost as though saying anything about Amy would be like throwing a match into a gas can.

Given the way Trey and Jason were glaring at each other, I had the feeling he was right.

“You’re not going without me,” I insisted. Maybe I wasn’t so great when it came to overpowering werewolves, but the Trackers were human. I couldn’t just sit at home while the three of them risked their lives.

“Why are you doing any of this?” asked Trey, suddenly. His voice held a mixture of anger and suspicion, but there was an undercurrent of genuine curiosity.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Jason’s gaze darted to mine, just for a second, so scorching that I almost flinched. “I’m doing this for Mac. Because she’d be safer with al of you gone. If I can’t convince the Trackers that she didn’t know about Serena, or if they find out her
boyfriend
”—he said the word like it was obscene they find out her
boyfriend
”—he said the word like it was obscene

—“is infected, then I won’t be able to protect her from them. I don’t want her getting hurt because she cares about a bunch of fleabags.”

“Jason . . .” What was I supposed to say to that? Part of me wanted to hug him, the other half of me wanted to slap him. Both options somehow felt completely wrong and utterly right, like an emotional stalemate.

“So you’re al about the protection,” snarled Trey. “That’s great.

I mean, you’ve done such a good job of protecting girls in the past.”

Al the color drained from Jason’s face. “Amy was kiled by a werewolf,” he reminded Trey, the words cutting the air like shrapnel. “One of your kind. Maybe you even know the fleabag responsible.”

In a blur of motion, Trey thrust his arms out, connecting with Jason’s chest.

Jason hit the hood of the SUV with a sickening crunch and only barely managed to keep from sliding to the ground.

Before Trey could do anything else, Serena and Kyle each grabbed one of his arms and dragged him across the lawn. There were two of them and one of him, but Trey was so wild that I wasn’t sure they would be able to hold him back.

Heart thudding in my chest, I ran to Jason’s side and got an arm under his shoulder. He stared at me, dazed. A smal trickle of blood appeared at his temple.

His brows knit together, like he was trying to remember something. “No,” he said, “that’s not . . .” He took a deep breath.

“Last night . . .” His voice faltered, and I wondered how much of the previous evening he actualy recaled. “Last night, you and Kyle said the police weren’t sure if a werewolf kiled her.”

He stumbled away from me, managing to stand on his own. He stared at Kyle. “Why did you say that?”

“Because they were trying to get you away from Derby,” Trey growled, like Jason was the world’s biggest idiot. “I went there the next night—after the police and reporters left. A wolf’s scent was al over that aley.”

Trey glared at me. “Tel him it was a wolf.” He waited for me to say something, for me to back him up. When I didn’t, confusion slid over his face and slowly turned to desperation. “It had to be a wolf. I smeled it.”

I swalowed and looked at Kyle. Nothing about Amy’s death added up.

“She was drugged,” I said softly. “We spoke to the detective who started the investigation and he said they found GHB in her system and that it kiled her. He thought . . .” I hesitated, wondering how much I could spare Jason and Trey. I took a deep breath. “There were signs that the fur they found might have been planted, that she didn’t fight back.”

Trey stared at me, horror-struck. “But the aley, the scent . . .”

A flash of pain crossed his face as another thought occurred to him. “GHB is a date rape drug.”

“She wasn’t raped,” I said quickly.

Trey was shaking.

Trey was shaking.

“She wasn’t,” I repeated. “Maybe someone slipped the drug to her and the wolf just . . .” What was I supposed to say, that maybe the wolf had interrupted? That wasn’t better. It wasn’t better at al.

Bile scalded the back of my throat and I felt perilously close to throwing up.

“Someone drugged her?”

I turned to Jason. The muscles in his jaw clenched and unclenched and his shoulders were hunched, like he was curling around a blow. Without waiting for an answer, he turned and strode away.

I glanced back at the three werewolves. Serena was whispering something to Trey, her voice so soft that al I could hear was a comforting murmur.

Kyle watched me, thoughts swirling through his eyes that I couldn’t read.

Without a word, I turned and went after Jason.

Henry’s house was in the middle of nowhere, his nearest neighbor at least a half mile away. If you were a werewolf, you probably valued your privacy.

As I approached the edge of the sprawling yard, the neatly mowed grass gave way to rocks and straggly weeds. The ground sloped down sharply until it met a smal stream.

Jason was sitting on a large rock, facing away from the house.

I started down the hil, gravel and pebbles sliding beneath my sneakers. I cursed as I lost my footing and stumbled down the last few yards.

few yards.

“You suck at stealth,” muttered Jason, not turning.

“Wel, you suck at hiding.” I shoved my hands into my pockets and shivered, but it didn’t do any good: the cold I felt had nothing to do with the weather.

“Why’d you come after me?”

There was something easier about talking to Jason’s back. “I wanted to make sure you were okay. And I wanted to talk to you without everyone overhearing.”

“Without Kyle overhearing, you mean.”

“And Serena and Trey.”

Jason let out a deep breath. “Right. Mustn’t forget about Trey.”

Though his tone was mild, there was a poisonous tang to the words.

I swalowed. “I’m sorry about Trey and Amy.”

“Don’t be. I had it coming.” Jason turned. His eyes held the same horrible, lost look they’d had at the funeral. “He was right, you know. I didn’t protect her. I’m the reason she was out there alone that night. I’m reason she’s dead.”

“Jason . . .” I fumbled, not sure what to say.

He stood and crossed the few feet that separated us. “
Don’t
,”

he said. “Don’t pretend like you’re not thinking it’s my fault.”

“Okay,” I whispered, two sylables that made him flinch.

He pushed his hair back with both hands and pressed his palms against the sides of his skul, like he was trying to keep his thoughts from tearing him apart. “Someone
drugged
her, Mac. She was mine to protect and look after and I just let her walk away. I let her walk away and I could have gone after her but I didn’t. I was walk away and I could have gone after her but I didn’t. I was scared of what she’d say, and I was tired of feeling guilty for loving you, so I just let her go. I let her go and someone else found her.”

A dul throb started in my chest and echoed through my head.

For the second time in as many days, someone had said they loved me. Only, this time, it made everything wrong.

“How . . .” I wrapped my arms around myself and dug my fingers into my skin, so hard it hurt. “How long did she know?

How long has it—whatever it is—been going on?”

Jason sighed and crossed his arms, almost like he was mirroring my position. “Awhile. Since last Christmas, I think.” He shrugged miserably. “It’s not like it happened al at once.”