Unleashed (19 page)

The next morning Katelyn woke up first and decided to let Cordelia sleep. Cordelia’s overnight bag was open, and a thick book was poking out. Curious, Katelyn eased it out a little farther.

Lost Treasures of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri
. Katelyn couldn’t help herself; it looked interesting, so she took the book with her, went to the kitchen, and started a pot of coffee. Then she sat down and started flipping through the pages. The more she read, the more interested she got. Who wouldn’t be excited at the prospect of discovering a treasure? Then she came to the section on a mine “located in the woods outside Wolf Springs.” It was their mine, the Madre Vena.

Score, Cordelia
, she thought as she continued to read eagerly. A passage jumped right out at her:

In one of the most unusual tales of the Madre Vena mine, it is said that the entrance is guarded by a supernatural creature called the Hellhound. Despite the name, this monster is not a dog but has been described as a huge, misshapen animal that vaguely resembles a wolf. According to an old diary written by one Xavier Cazador, it has wild, glowing eyes and elongated fangs “as sharp as knives,” and it breathes fire. Cazador was a Spaniard who lived on the grounds of the old Catholic church that is now home to Wolf Springs High School.

“The Devil in Wolf Form chased me all night,” he wrote in 1868. “Quite by accident, I stumbled upon the Lost Mine of Madre Vena. With only a torch to guide me, I espied the silvery riches in the rocks. I beheld a fortune, a king’s ransom! I praised the Virgin, who had surely shown me this miracle.

“Then I heard a ferocious growling, and then another, much softer, as if farther away. Still, I was terrified, and I began to run. Little did I realize until later that the farther away the monster lurked, the louder its howl. The closer it slunk, the softer its voice. When it leaped at me, it made no sound at all! Then the Hellhound came after me! It would have caught me, too, except that I fell onto the holy ground of the churchyard, where it could not go.”

Despite continued questioning, Xavier Cazador refused to reveal the location of the mine. Locals believed he had never actually been to it, and was spinning a tall tale in return for drinks at the local tavern. But notorious Arkansas outlaw Jubal DeAndrew, who lived with his family in the Wolf Springs Bog, kidnapped Cazador. One of the outlaw’s daughters later reported that DeAndrew threatened Cazador at gunpoint to reveal the site of the mine or die. The daughter could not confirm if Cazador had disclosed it, but DeAndrew set him free. Cazador died two days later, and Jubal DeAndrew was never seen again.

“Double score,” Katelyn murmured as she turned the page. “Maybe this Hellhound is what the monks were scared of.”

“What are you reading?” Cordelia asked from behind her.

Katelyn jumped. She’d been so engrossed in reading she’d almost forgotten the other girl was in the house. She turned and grinned, catching Cordelia in a yawn.

“I think I just found the monster in the forest.”

“Sweet,” Cordelia said. She still looked half-asleep; her red hair was puffed out in a halo of fire. She walked over to the table and leaned down, resting her head on her arms, then let out a soft little groan.

Katelyn snickered. “You have a hangover and we didn’t even drink.”

“Not a morning person,” Cordelia muttered.

“Coffee? Diet Coke?”

“Coffee, if it’s not too much trouble. Otherwise just give me a D.C.” Cordelia unfolded herself and sleepily picked up the old book.

“I’m sorry. I snatched it,” Katelyn confessed. “I saw it sticking out of your overnight bag.”

“Jeesh. You
are
an eager beaver.”

Katelyn went to the cupboard. “And guess what else. It has a monster. Is that not
mucho
cool?”

“
Sí
,” Cordelia said, turning the pages as she stifled another yawn. “
Mucho
cool.”

Katelyn got out two coffee cups, then took them to the sink and rinsed them out, to guard against rat “presents” and dust.

“There’s also a lost map and a funny-shaped rock,” Cordelia said, reading. “Where’s the part about the monster?” She started flipping the pages back and forth.

“Go back one more,” Katelyn told her, gazing across the kitchen at the pages. “A scary monster, a lost map, treasure.” She turned off the water and picked the cups up. “It’s Scooby-Doo perfection!”

She whirled around with a triumphant smile, but Cordelia was staring down at the open book, her lips parted, her face pale. Before Katelyn could get a peek at what had upset her, Cordelia closed the book and looped her red hair behind her ears.

“Are you okay?” Katelyn asked.

“Fine,” Cordelia snapped, her tone suddenly almost nasty.

Katelyn was startled. She lifted the coffee cups defensively. “Am I too chirpy?”

“I’m sorry,” Cordelia said, immediately backpedaling. “It’s just … we’re living on top of each other at my house. I’m getting kind of bummed thinking about going back.”

“I understand. I don’t like being here, either,” Katelyn replied. They shared a grumpy smile, but she wasn’t entirely sure that was all that was bothering Cordelia. She gestured to the book. “Did you see the monster part?”

“No,” Cordelia murmured, stifling another yawn. “Sorry.” She dragged herself to her feet. “I’ll look at it later. As much as I don’t want to, I should head home.”

“Are you sure?” Katelyn asked.

Cordelia glanced at her watch and nodded. Her face was almost gray. And Katelyn wasn’t positive, but she thought Cordelia’s hands were shaking. “My dad … I think he has something planned for today.” She ran her hands along her arms, as if she were cold.

“Is everything okay?” Katelyn pressed, still unsure about her friend.

“Oh, Kat, I’m so sorry,” Cordelia said, reaching over and giving her a quick hug. “This was great. You’re a perfect hostess and I had fun. I just really should get going.”

Katelyn believed her, but she was still sad to see her go. As soon as she heard the crunch of Cordelia’s truck wheels on the drive, she sat down at the table and opened the book again. There was a pen-and-ink illustration of an enormous, fierce animal half flying through the air at an old-time prospector. The Hellhound was not so much wolf-like as monster-like, a blur of black fur and glowing eyes. Its teeth were as long as its claws, and steaming saliva poured from its gaping maw as it closed in on the man.

“Haley,” she murmured, then shook her head. Nothing like this had attacked her. It was just a legend.

The rest of the book was pretty dry, and as she read on, it got harder and harder to concentrate. Her mind kept drifting to Justin. She’d never been kissed like that. She’d hardly been kissed at all—just a few experiments at parties with boys who had barely touched her lips. She just couldn’t believe that he was taken.

If she ever saw him again, she’d punch him out, she thought angrily.

Except she couldn’t believe he hadn’t meant those kisses. They’d been so passionate. Was it possible Cordelia had it wrong? Maybe he’d broken up with Lucy.

Or maybe he’s just an ass and he’s not the guy for you
.

She decided to call Kimi to discuss it, but her call went straight to voice mail.

“I know it’s way early there, but I’ve got something important,” she said, hiding the disappointment in her voice.

She hung up and waited for a callback, but the phone remained stubbornly silent.

“Hellhound,” she said aloud. Could that be the same thing the priests had been afraid of? Maybe it had been an extra-large wolf, or some kind of mutant or something. It would be long dead by now. Maybe it had descendants. Maybe every once in a while, one of those descendants started attacking people.

She went back to reading the book, but the rest was pretty boring—discussions of failed attempts to find the mine, with names, dates, and equipment lists. She started to doze off. The rest of her schoolwork still didn’t sound fun, so Katelyn lounged around in her pajamas until her grandfather got home around noon. When she heard his truck pulling up to the cabin, she ran upstairs, threw on some clothes, and was back in the living room before he’d made it to the front door.

“Hi, Katie.” She nodded at him. “Everything go okay?” he asked.

“Great,” she said brightly. When he wasn’t looking, she darted a glance at the rifle on the wall to make sure it had been replaced correctly.

“Good. Give me a hand?”

She followed him outside. The sun was out, but it was still chilly. He pulled back the tarp from the bed of the truck. She was astonished to see rows and rows of canned food—pears, peaches, vegetarian-style baked beans, corn, tomatoes, pickled beets. Tuna. Beef stew. And other things: antifreeze and cartons of ammunition.

“Um, isn’t Bentonville the world headquarters of Walmart?” Bentonville was where the airport was located. “Did you have to go all the way to Little Rock to get this stuff?” she asked him as she picked up a half-gallon container of antifreeze and held it against her chest. Her shoulder was still sore.

He led the way toward his detached garage. “I had other things to do in Little Rock. Saw a lawyer, for one.”

Her eyebrows shot up, but as he was walking ahead of her, he didn’t see.

“Your mama didn’t leave you any money,” he said bluntly. “But you’ll get some social security and the city’s sending you something because of your dad. I’m the guardian of your estate until you turn eighteen. For now, I’ll give you cash every month, pay your phone, buy your clothes.”

She hadn’t even thought of any of that. “Thank you,” she said softly.

“And I updated my will,” he added. That startled her. She stumbled, found her footing, and hurried to catch up to him. He was a fast walker.

“Are you sick?” she asked him.

“No. Just careful,” he replied.

He held the door to the garage open. It was dark inside. He flicked on a light switch. The small space was tidy, with tools and ropes hanging from pegboards, and a long tool bench holding tackle boxes and a row of screwdrivers and pliers. There was a canoe in the center of the room and a metal folding chair beside it.

“I hit a shoal during the summer,” he said, gesturing to the canoe. “Scraped up the bottom. I’ll be moving it so we can put the truck in here during the winter,” he said. “The larder’s over here.”

He led her past the canoe, opened a door, and pulled on a chain. They entered a storage room. Wooden shelves held a few bottles of pasta sauce and some glass jars labeled J.D.’S PICKLES.

He looked at the way she was holding the antifreeze. “Is your shoulder bothering you too much to help me unload the truck?”

“No,” she said; then she realized that back home, she would have said yes, because of her gymnastics and ballet. Here it almost didn’t matter if she got injured.

I can’t think that way
, she told herself, fretting.
This is all temporary
.

“We’ll get snowed in. You can count on it,” he told her.

“Yay,” she said weakly. The idea of being trapped was a nightmare.

Once they were finished, he marched her into the forest for more rifle training. With the night’s scare explained away, she was again reluctant to touch the weapon.

They practiced for more than half an hour, but it seemed to her that she was getting worse instead of better. She was tired and frustrated.

“How do you feel?” he asked after a particularly errant shot.

“Not good,” she admitted. “My shoulder
is
still sore.”

He nodded and took the rifle from her. “Let’s end for the day.” He turned and she fell into step beside him, relieved to be done.

“How do you think it went?” she asked tentatively, just to fill the silence.

He sighed. “I think it was a terrible waste of ammunition.”

Her heart fell. She trudged back to the house beside him, staring at her feet. As much as she hated the rifle, she didn’t want to disappoint Ed, and the realization surprised her. When had she started to care about pleasing him?

That night, she dreamed about Justin. Red fog boiled around him as he rode his motorcycle; and surrounding that, blackest night. He was speeding toward her, but she was standing on the other side of an enormous chasm. As he reached the edge of the cliff, he gunned the engine and the motorcycle soared into the air, arcing like a comet, clouds of exhaust shooting out the back. She held out her arms, willing him to make it.

He flew, climbing higher and higher—but then something happened. He began to fall. And the red wasn’t fog; it was smoke and flames, and he was diving into them.

“No!” she cried, bolting upright in bed.

Panting, she smoothed back her hair.
It was just a dream
, she assured herself.

Lying on her side, she curled into a ball. Her heart was racing. She considered getting up to call Kimi, but it was the middle of the night.

And Kimi still hadn’t called her back from the morning.