Marked (The Pack) (9 page)

“And we’re going to the Brantons’ house now?”

“Right, I need to see Myles’ dad, and he asked me to bring you over.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. You’ll have to see when we get there.”

I hated waiting.

“So, did you call anyone about those dogs?”

“Yep. I notified animal control this morning before you got up. They’ll go see if they belong to the people on the lake.”

“They won’t kill them, will they?”

She glanced at me. “No, why?”

“Just wondering. They didn’t look rabid or anything. I’d hate for them to be killed for nothing.”

“You didn’t have a nightmare last night?”

“Nope, no nightmare, no sleepwalking. Too tired I guess. Did the animal control people think those dogs had anything to do with the woman that was killed?”

Louise became very still. “Why do you ask?”

I shrugged. “Seems a little odd that the woman got attacked and we’re seeing all these dogs.”

Dark, gold flecked eyes locked onto me. “Is there something you know about all this that you need to be telling me, Alexis?”

For a moment I was stunned. Did she think I had information about a woman’s death? Really? How could I know anything? I closed my eyes briefly, and images flashed on the back of my eyelids. I jerked them open. I hadn’t been out of the house that night. I couldn’t have.

“What could I know?” My voice shook but I hoped she didn’t notice.

“Nothing I guess.” Then Louise changed the subject. “I’m having paint and scaffolding delivered today.”

“You’re having what delivered?”

“Paint.”

“I know what paint is, but when you say scaffolding do you mean all those pipe things that they put up on the side of a building that’s being worked on?”

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

“What are you going to do with that?”

“WE are going to paint the outside of the house with it. That’s why I had the people come and wash the house down the other day when we were at camp.”

I frowned, not sure that I liked the sound of this at all. “Why can’t they paint the house too?”

“It’s expensive, besides, you should learn a new skill while you’re here.”

“I’ve been to decorative painting classes and I can do craft painting.”

“House painting and craft painting are very different.”

“I’ll bet they are. That house is huge.”

Louise kept her eyes on the road, not even bothering to glance at me. “We’ll work on it bit by bit. What else are you going to do this summer?”

I didn’t respond. What else was there to say? She was exactly right. I might as well paint a house because
what else was I going to do all summer?

***

Myles dad met us in front of the cedar lake house. It was a very nice house, but nothing spectacular like Channing’s or Brynna’s.

“Come on, Alexis.” He started off toward the lake and led us inside a huge boathouse.

Two boats were suspended above the water by belts hanging from the ceiling. No less than five jet skis were on individual motorized platforms so they could be slid into the water or lifted out with ease. He took me to a royal blue and white ski that I loved immediately.

“For the summer this can be your jet ski. You can come get it anytime you want. I’ll show you where the keys to the boathouse and the lifts are kept.”

“That’s so great. Thank you, Mr. Branton.”

”It’s no problem. They’re sitting here and need to be used.”

I was already wondering if there was a trail on this side of the lake that would lead me to their house. My own jet ski, well, practically my own.

Myles trotted through the door. Eric followed behind him.

Below my feet, the decking seemed to tilt. I hoped no one else could notice how Eric’s presence in the room affected me. The slightly increased beat of my heart, the jittery feeling in my stomach, all seemed to occur when he was around. I couldn’t seem to control it.

“Hey, let’s go riding.” Myles immediately began lowering one of the lifts.

“That would be good.” Aunt Louise said. “I need to talk to your dad.”

Myles looked at me. “You can ride in that if you want, but if you’d rather get a swimsuit we can go kind of slow over to your side of the lake and you can run up the trail to your house.”

I glanced at Myles then down at my short skirt, tight lacy top, and sandals. While Myles walked away to get life vests, Eric waited in front of me.

Without warning, he reached toward me and tugged at the shoulder strap of the lacy top. “Doesn’t look quite right for jet skiing.”

I held my breath and his hand slipped away while he frowned. A whirling vortex sucked me toward him. My body didn’t move, but part of me, inside, did. A part I wasn’t sure had ever moved before. Opening my mouth slightly I sucked in a breath. “If you don’t mind I’d like to get the swimsuit.”

Myles walked over and tossed me a vest. “Probably a good idea.”

In ten minutes we were inching the jet skis into the shallows near the path to Louise’s house.

“We’ll wait here while you go change.” Myles said.

“No, Myles can wait. I’ll go with you.” Eric jumped off his ski and tossed a rope to Myles to keep the machine from drifting away.

“Okay.” I was already wading ashore with my strappy sandals in hand.

I figured if I used the path enough, I’d forget the bad dreams I’d had about the place and soon the hair on the back of my neck wouldn’t tingle every time I set foot on it. Still, the bushes I passed rattled and more than my neck hair tingled. My whole body quivered. I turned slowly, not really expecting to see anything. But I was wrong.

Eric was two steps behind me and just past him a single wolf with a very light gray-brown coat stepped onto the path. I stared at it and hoped we didn’t look like lunch. Backing along the path toward the house, I thought what I’d do if it were a regular dog. Didn’t those wolf hybrid dogs come from a German Shepherd or Husky dog being bred to a real wolf. This animal was massive and I wondered how they bred them to be so big. Surely, there had to be some normal dog in there.

I stomped my foot. “Go on. Get out of here. Go home.”

Clapping my hands I advanced a step toward the animal rather than retreating. “Go away, you hear me. Take off!”

I’d come even with Eric who had also turned to face the animal. He caught me by the arm and didn’t say a word just stared.

The wolf dog stopped, shook, and trotted into the woods in the opposite direction. My breath left my lungs in a gasp and I bent over, resting my hands on my knees allowing myself to hyperventilate at last. Eric let go of my arm and rubbed his hand over my back. I’m certain he meant to soothe, but in reality it didn’t help my ability to breathe at all.

He stopped abruptly and I straightened.

“Guess we showed him who’s boss.”

Eric laughed. “Yep, we did.”

He started along the path toward Louise’s house, and I hurried to catch him.

“How’d you do that?”

He glanced at me. “Do what?”

“Make the dog run away.”

“I thought it was your clapping and stomping.”

“You know it wasn’t.”

“I only stared at him and showed him we weren’t afraid. But I’m sure it was a combination of both of us that got him to leave.”

I didn’t say anything else, but the idea that we’d defeated the enemy together made me feel better. When we reached the porch of the house Eric stopped as I opened the door using the spare key Louise kept hidden under a loose board on the flooring.

“I’ll wait here while you go change.”

I nodded and hurried upstairs. In only minutes I had thrown the skirt and lacy top on the floor and pulled on my swimsuit, a t-shirt and some nylon shorts. At the last minute, I ran in the bathroom to get a towel for the seat, remembering how it had rubbed my leg the other day at Channing’s. I threw open the front door and rammed into Myles, who was standing next to Eric directly in front of the door.

“What are you doing?” I grabbed the handle to keep from falling.

“I got tired of waiting.”

“We weren’t gone that long were we?”

“Long enough.”

I eyed his sweaty face and the dirt and grass stuck to his legs. “Did you run all the way?”

“Naw, it’s just hot.”

I led the way back with Eric and Myles following. “Hey, you won’t believe it, but we saw one of those half wolf half dogs on the way up. It tried to follow us but Eric and I ran it off.”

“Really, I heard some people around here have those. Were you scared?”

Eric had come even with me and the back of his hand occasionally brushed mine as we walked. He shook his head at Myles.

“My dad is in construction, and we go to a lot of homes with dogs. I’ve learned if you stand your ground and look the dog in the eye it will usually go away.”

“And that worked?” Myles looked surprised.

“Oh and Alexis did some shouting and clapping which probably helped.”

We were almost to the jet skis when I saw it. On the bushes at the other edge of the path was a liquid that looked a lot like blood.

“Myles look at this. Do you think that dog could have killed something?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. But let’s get going.”

“Right. I’ll let Aunt Louise know I saw another one. There were four of them in our yard last night. She called animal control and they’re supposed to check into it.”

Eric and I kept walking but I realized Myles had stopped. I glanced back without slowing up.

“What, are you scared? Don’t worry we’ll protect you.”

He laughed and jogged to catch us. “I’ll remember that.”

We splashed to where the skis waited. Before getting on his ski, Eric flipped open the seat and took a cell phone out of a plastic bag. “My dad said he might need me this evening to help him with some work around the house, so I’m supposed to be checking my phone regularly.” He pressed buttons on the phone and nodded. “Looks like that’s it for me, he needs me to come home.”

I knew the disappointment showed on my face. Eric caught hold of the handle of my jet ski as I sat on it and leaned toward me. “Maybe we’ll get to go again soon.”

I nodded without a word, and he let go and was gone in an instant. I could only stare at the spray of water as he left.

Myles walked next to me, his jet ski behind him. “Did I miss something?”

“What are you talking about?”

“About you and Eric. There was a… thing there for a minute.”

“I don’t know what you mean. What ‘thing’?”

“A like each other thing.”

“We’ve barely seen each other twice, don’t be ridiculous. You can’t like someone when you’ve only said ten words to them.”

“Can’t you?” He arched an eyebrow.

“No you can’t.” I turned away. With a twist of my hand I had the ski flying across the water.

Chapter Ten

Back at Myles’ house, Brynna sat on the pier holding the rope to a jet ski floating below her. Myles steered his ski in sideways and sloshed water onto her. “What’s up, Brynna?”

I stayed further away, not wanting to worry with Brynna right now.

“Your dad called my parents to come over. But I’m not sure why.”

“It might be about that parent from your school. He came to the house this morning.”

Brynna frowned. “What parent?”

“I wouldn’t know, since I don’t know any of the kids you do that home school thing with.”

I clipped and unclipped the latch on my life vest. I was tired of sitting here, and why did they care if their folks had to meet about a parent teacher conference? Those things happened all the time at my school. Maybe if I changed the subject they’d quit wondering what their parents were up to and the three of us could have fun.

“Hey, a little herd of wolf dogs came to our house last night. Then I saw another one a minute ago and we found blood like it had killed something. Didn’t we Myles?”

Brynna’s wide-eyed look made me smile. Ha, she couldn’t pretend to be
so bored because I know everything
when she heard that. Myles nodded and Brynna glanced toward his house then back at me.

“It’s a pack not a herd.” She finally said.

I had stood on the jet ski to readjust the towel on the seat and paused with the towel in hand. “What are you talking about? Never mind that. I don’t care. Can we ride now or do we have to sit here and discuss wildlife?”

Brynna slid into the life jacket that had been lying beside her on the pier. “You called the group of wolves a herd. Cows and horses are called herds. Wolves travel in packs.”

“Thank you for the correction oh, queen of infinite wisdom.” With my towel in place, I plopped onto the seat.