Riot Girls: Seven Books With Girls Who Don't Need A Hero Read online

  A stab of fear entered my heart. “No, but I don’t really know Max. My mom knew my dad. He had to have been human,” I said in a last ditch effort to prove them wrong.

  Jason wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I am sorry Xoe, but . . . your smell begs to differ.”

  “Well, then . . . what am I?” I asked no one in particular.

  Max shrugged. “Not sure, it’s not a smell I know.”

  We all sat in silence. If my mind wasn’t already spinning, it sure was now. I had just began to accept the idea that supernatural beings existed. Now I was supposed to believe that I was one?

  “So that’s it?” I asked, frustrated. “You tell me that I’m not human and have no other explanation than that I smell funny?”

  “Has anything strange ever happened to you, or have you ever been able to do something you should not have been able to do?” Jason asked.

  “Um, not that I know of,” I answered hesitantly.

  “Then there is no way to tell,” Jason stated. “You may simply go on like a regular human.”

  “Is there any reason why I wouldn’t?” I asked. “I mean, if I was going to exhibit any non-human traits, wouldn’t I have done so by now?”

  “Not necessarily,” Jason answered. “Mixing human bloodlines with supernatural is a roll-of-the-dice process. There is no way of telling what might happen. Humans have dominant and recessive traits. The supernatural traits are no different from the others. They may be recessive to the human ones . . . or the supernatural traits may only reveal themselves with time.”

  “Oh,” I answered. What else could I say?

  “What time is it now?” Lucy asked the room anxiously.

  Max glanced at his watch. “6:45.”

  Lucy cringed. “When did you say it was going to happen again . . . the change?”

  Max watched Lucy worriedly. “Around full dark, it’s not exactly precise. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  Lucy was silent for a moment, then asked hesitantly, “Will it hurt?”

  Max smiled sadly. “Do you want the truth?” he asked her.

  Lucy seemed to think about it, then nodded her head slowly, as if she might regret learning the answer.

  “Yes,” Max replied. “It hurts.”

  Lucy nodded her head somberly. I squeezed her hand and we settled in to wait.

  Suddenly my mouth went dry. A horrible thought dawned on me. I turned toward Max. “Um, aren’t you supposed to be turning into a werewolf tonight too?”

  Max smiled. “I can control it. I have to turn each month, but I can do it any of the three days that the moon is at its fullest.”

  Allison looked green. “Are you sure?” she asked.

  Max nodded, perfectly at ease. We had no choice but to take him for his word and hope that it held true. Well, that, or kick him out the bay door, but that would be just plain rude.

  The next hour went by incredibly slow. My mind was completely preoccupied with the idea that I might not be human. Conversation was kept to a minimum, not by choice, but what do you say when you just found out you might not be human, all while waiting for your friend to turn into a wolf? It was almost 8:00. There was no light left outside to shine through the bottom of the bay door where it met the ground.

  Suddenly Lucy started to whimper. “Something’s happening,” she spat through gritted teeth.

  I let go of Lucy’s hand and stood. Jason ran to his medical kit and started filling a syringe. Lucy’s knuckles were white, her hands were curled into tight fists. Sweat began to bead on her brow. Jason came running with the syringe and stuck her in the arm.

  Lucy was panting heavily, her eyes half closed. Then the screaming started.

  Jason came up behind Lucy and quickly tied a thick piece of cloth around her mouth to dull the noise of her screams. It didn’t help much. We just had to hope that no one was in hearing range of us. Loud popping noises emanated from her limbs and there was a sickening tearing sound coming from somewhere in her body. Her skin began to ripple like something alive swam underneath. Her bones pulled apart at the joints under her skin. Her body twisted and reshaped as her form started to look more wolf than human.

  Harsh reality set in. It was real. It was all real. Werewolves and who knew what else . . . existed. I was frozen with terror as I watched Lucy change. Fur erupted all over her mostly wolf body. It was like freeze frame animation, every time I blinked the picture changed.

  A few heart-pounding minutes later Lucy’s screams were cut off into a guttural howl. My limbs unlocked and I ran to a corner and threw up. Hot tears stung my eyes as I crouched in the corner, not wanting to look back to the thing that was formerly Lucy.

  When I had regained enough composure to turn back to the scene, a giant wolf had taken Lucy’s place. It was growling and thrashing around trying to free itself from its bonds. The warped chair was lying several feet away from the wolf. Large gleaming teeth snapped at empty air as the wolf strained against the chains. The gag had fallen to the floor. The wolf’s fur was the same black as Lucy’s hair.

  Chapter Eleven

  THE WOLF CONTINUED to thrash and snap at the air. Jason herded us away, back towards his car. “She’ll be like this the rest of the night. I’ll stay with her. Max can take you guys home,” Jason stated, annoyingly calm.

  “Will she be like this every month?” Allison asked breathlessly. Her eyes were too wide, she looked ready to bolt.

  “No,” Max answered, his hand on Allison’s arm, offering comfort. “She’ll slowly gain control of herself in wolf form, once she’s a little less dangerous I’ll take her to shift in the woods. Eventually she’ll be able to go out on her own and not risk eating any humans.”

  “How long?” I asked.

  “I don’t really know,” Max replied. “The only experience I have to go on is my own. It took me about five months, five shifts. Those first few months . . . I don’t really remember much of what happened . . . ”

  Max’s far-away gaze made him look like a lost little boy. I realized that I knew barely anything about Max. I had always just kind of . . . overlooked him. He had gone through everything that Lucy had, but he had been completely by himself. Until now, he had lived in a world where no one was like him—alone. I felt a wash of love and gratitude for my friends. With them I would never feel that lonely. I needed to stop taking that for granted.

  I shifted my attention to Allison as she nodded, numbly accepting Max’s answer, then slid into the backseat of Jason’s car.

  “I’m staying,” I stated matter-of-factly. “My mom thinks I’m at Lucy’s and I’m not leaving her. She’ll be scared when she turns back.”

  Jason looked unsure, but finally nodded his assent. Allison stayed staring blankly in the backseat, looking pale. I put Allison’s seatbelt on her without her really noticing. I grabbed a piece of gum from her purse while I was at it to get rid of the taste of vomit in my mouth. I gave Allison one final worried look, then shut the car door.

  After Max and Allison drove away, Jason and I sat cross-legged on the floor, a safe distance from Lucy. Jason had taken a brown leather aviator jacket out of his car before Max drove away. I had assumed it was for him, but as we sat down he draped it over my shoulders. I was freezing, so I didn’t argue. I put my arms through the sleeves and wrapped the jacket close around me. His jacket smelled like him, the scent smelled like a pleasant mixture of trees and vanilla. The cold didn’t seem to faze him.

  I was the first to break the silence. “Tell me more about werewolves.”

  He looked up at me, his face half in shadow. “Max would really be the one to ask. I have already told you most of what I know: they must turn once a month, but once they gain control they are able to change at will; they have superhuman strength, even in human form; they are not much stronger than humans in the beginning, but the strength grows as time goes on; and they are very hard to kill, depending on how powerful they are. Like I said, silver only works on newer werewolves.”

  The strengt
h thing was new information to me. I cocked my head, thinking. “So how do you kill an experienced werewolf?”

  “It is no easy task,” he replied. “Brute force is the best method. The older the wolf, the more quickly it will regenerate. You literally have to tear them limb from limb.”

  I suddenly felt queasy again. “So a human wouldn’t be able to kill one?”

  Jason shook his head. “It has been done before, though it is usually a group of humans. One human would stand no chance, unless they are very lucky.”

  I nodded, my fear of Dan now increased ten-fold. I still had one more question that had been eating at me all day. “How did you just happen to show up in town shortly after Dan did, and how did you know to be on the trail when he attacked me and Lucy, and how do you know about werewolves?” I kept my eyes focused steadily on Jason, trying to keep myself distracted from the all too real wolf salivating across the room.

  Jason ran his hand through his hair, then returned it to his knee. I was beginning to understand that that was his nervous gesture, the ‘tell’ that gave him away. He took in a deep breath. “I’ve been following Dan.”

  “Why?” I prodded. I realized that I had scooted a little too close to Jason in anticipation of his answer. His face was very close. I felt a blush heat my face, but held my ground.

  Jason either was comfortable with the closeness, or else he didn’t notice. “Most werewolves are able to fit into society. They form packs for protection and do their best to play human. Dan was a member of a pack, but he then attacked and killed a human. Pack law states that if any wolf kills a human, that wolf will be executed. Dan fled. His pack hired me to follow him. Once he entered an area with a local pack, I was to report to them and they would handle the execution. Dan has been very careful so far. Shelby does not have a local pack, so I was keeping an eye on him until he moved on.”

  I thought about what he’d said for a moment. “Why can’t you just, you know, take care of it?”

  He laughed and drew a little closer to me. “Trust me, I have considered it. First of all, it would be a close fight, Dan is very strong. Secondly, the wolves tend to keep these things within their society. I was only hired to follow him.”

  I asked, “So you’re like a bounty hunter?”

  The side of his mouth raised in a crooked smile. “Something like that.”

  Hmm, a real live bounty hunter. I tried to hide my morbid excitement. “So, if werewolves stay in packs, then why is Max in Shelby, where there is no pack?”

  Jason answered, “I have not asked him his story. He apparently changed on his own, so I would guess that he was attacked by a rogue wolf. It is rare for someone like that to not only survive the attack and the change, but to also not massacre his loved ones, but it happens. Any more questions?”

  “Yes,” I replied. “Who . . . or what, are you, and how did you become involved in all of this?”

  He pursed his lips. “That I will explain when this night is over, and you are not trapped alone in a dark room with me and a bloodthirsty wolf.”

  Ominous . . . very ominous. “Tomorrow?”

  He sighed, then looked down and nodded his head. “Tomorrow.”

  Jason looked over at Lucy and my eyes followed his. She had calmed down, and had now resorted to staring at us hungrily. It was hard to think of the wolf as my best friend . . . usually best friends didn’t want to eat you. She kept her eyes on us, ears forward and alert.

  “Max is here,” Jason stated.

  The bay door lifted and Max called in that it was him, confirming what Jason had said, then drove Jason’s car through. The headlights cast bouncing shapes across the rubble against the walls of the warehouse.

  “Is Allison okay?” I called as Max stepped out of the car.

  “She’s adjusting, I think. It’s a lot to take in.” Max said as he went to close the bay door. After an echoing clang Max walked to where we were sitting and plunked down beside Jason. He turned to me. “There’re some blankets in the back seat if you wanna get some rest Xoe.”

  Come to think of it, I was exhausted. Max looked as annoyingly wide-awake as ever. I nodded and got up.

  Crawling into the backseat of the car I found several blankets and a pillow waiting for me. Bonus points for Max, or Jason, depending on who had supplied me with the bedding. I considered giving Jason back his jacket, which was still wrapped around me, but greedily snuggled up with it. I awkwardly curled my legs up on the seat. Believe it or not, there are some downsides to being tall. I fell asleep about 30 seconds after my head hit the pillow.

  I had nightmares of werewolves, vampires, and my dad, who I somehow just knew was my dad, even though I’ve never seen him, turning into a gargantuan monster and telling me I’d grow up to be just like him.

  I woke to Jason gently shaking my shoulders. “Lucy’s starting to change back,” he informed me. He looked at me worriedly and placed his hand against my neck. “You have a fever,” he said.

  I blinked at him, momentarily confused, and mumbled, “I’m fine, it’s nothing. I need to see Lucy.”

  I scooted out of the car in a hurry, but was instantly stopped by Max. He grabbed my arm to keep me from rushing to Lucy and pulled one of the blankets out of the car. He blushed, handing me the dark gray blanket, and said “She’s not gonna, um, have any clothes when she changes back.”

  “Oh,” I replied, clutching the blanket in both hands, “er, thanks.”

  I gathered up the blanket so it wouldn’t drag on the floor and started walking to Lucy. I spared a glance back to Jason and Max, who were standing dutifully by the car with their backs turned to Lucy and me. I wished I could wait with them. I wondered if Lucy was going to be different, more like Dan. I hoped not.

  Lucy was almost back to human form by the time I reached her. She was lying on her side on the concrete, still in chains. Her body was back to normal, but her face was still . . . wrong. It was hard to tell what was wrong about it, it just was. She was panting and whimpering softly. I watched her worriedly, feeling sick again. I couldn’t make sense of the change, but her face slowly shifted back to normal. I wrapped the blanket around her, snuggling it up around her neck. Tears streamed down her delicate face. I called Jason over to unlock Lucy’s chains. After letting the chains fall to the floor, Jason gently lifted Lucy in his arms. She was mostly covered by the blanket, only her bare feet and a few locks of her long black hair were visible. He carried her to the car, placing her in the back seat.

  I followed them and slid into the backseat beside Lucy, comforting her while Jason and Max loaded everything back into the trunk. She laid her head in my lap and I stroked her hair while she cried silent, tired tears. With a slam of the trunk Jason and Max walked to the front of the car. I looked down at Lucy and realized that she’d fallen asleep in my lap.

  Jason slid into the driver’s seat as Max took the front seat next to him. Neither looked back at Lucy and me. Jason started the car, lighting up the clock on the dash. I spared a glance at it, 6:27 am. We were so not making it in time for school. I put my seatbelt on and awkwardly wrapped the middle seatbelt around Lucy’s waist, snapping it in place.

  I directed Jason as he drove us back to Lucy’s empty house. The warmth of the sun from the window pulsed against my skin. I propped Lucy up so I could take off Jason’s jacket. Lucy was still unconscious, her limbs limp like a corpse. Jason pulled into the circular gravel driveway and shut off the car. He got out and opened the door to the backseat while Max took Lucy’s keys to unlock the front door. Jason gently lifted Lucy out of the car and carried her inside with me tagging along behind him.

  I flipped on the lights as I walked through the doorway. We walked into the living room and Jason placed the still unconscious Lucy gently on the pale beige couch. Everything about Lucy’s house is very . . . beige. It was a stark contrast to the colorful chaos that I was used to.

  We stood in the silence of the dark, nondescript living room until Max said, “She’ll be out for a while, TV?
”

  I grabbed the remote from the plain oak coffee table, turning the TV on as I sat down next to Max on the loveseat. Jason had sat down by Lucy’s feet on the couch. I flipped through the channels, finally settling on Teen Wolf the movie. Seemed fitting.

  As we watched, I quizzed Max on the similarities between the movie and real werewolves. He seemed more than happy to talk about it. He chattered away while I half-listened to him. Jason appeared to be deep in thought, not watching the movie or listening to Max. I settled back on the loveseat and prepared to wait. Eventually Max ran out of material, after all, everything he knew about werewolves was what he had learned from personal experience, and I turned my focus back to the movie.

  When the movie ended, I pushed the guide button on the remote. Apparently there exists a second Teen Wolf movie, titled Teen Wolf Too, which was playing after the first one. Lucy was still out cold, so we decided to watch that one too.

  I woke up, realizing I had fallen asleep and missed most of Teen Wolf Too. Max had changed the channel to a soccer game. I looked at Jason to find him watching me, worry creasing his brow. Jason caught my eyes with his, then nodded to the backdoor. Interpreting his signal, I followed him out, leaving Max to watch Lucy.

  “I guess I can tell you what you want to know now,” Jason said with a sigh as I shut the backdoor behind us. “Dan is still in town, so the situation is far from over, but at least now you have a choice of whether or not you want to be around me.” He walked farther into the backyard, to sit on a small iron bench in one corner of Lucy’s yard. A large oak tree shaded the bench, its branches reaching hungrily toward the sun. He gestured for me to sit beside him. Sitting down, I watched him expectantly.

  “I’m . . . a vampire,” he said.

  I blinked slowly at him. “Well I guess that makes sense.”

  A stunned expression crossed his face. “You’re not shocked? Horrified?”

  I smirked. “You’re talking to someone who found out that werewolves exist, had her best friend turned into a werewolf, not to mention finding out that I’m apparently not human, all in the last few days. Forgive me if I do not display the proper amount of awe. As for the horrified part, that all depends on my next few questions.”