Howl for Me Read online

  And he’s mine.

  That got me smiling, at least until it was time to get up, and get on with life.

  -8-

  “Hey, Caitlyn?”

  I was a little nervous when she picked up on the second ring, but not really sure why. It was probably just a mixture of everything slamming into me at once. I felt shaky and unsure. I shut my eyes, and tried to brush it off.

  “Hey… It’s Lily.”

  “Yeah!”

  I exhaled a sigh of relief. Caitlyn sounded so excited to hear from me that it made me relax.

  “How ya been?”

  Her voice was so up-beat, so bubbly, that a few seconds after the relief, came a feeling of guilt. She was going to find out Devin was back, and it was going to break her heart. No, maybe not, I thought. Maybe she won’t. Maybe, it’ll be smooth. Like, Damon will come back, he and Devin will do whatever they have to do, and then he’ll go back on his way.

  Maybe.

  But, then again, maybe not.

  “Lily?”

  “Oh, shit,” I said. “Sorry. I kinda zoned out there for a second. I have some good news! Sort of. Actually, I have a favor to ask. That’s not too forward, is it? Not talking to you for, like, two months, and then asking a favor?”

  She snorted a laugh.

  “Come on, Lily,” Cat said. “We went through some stuff, you know? We’ve both got our own lives. You don’t have to do the whole worrying-about-social-graces thing with me. Whatever you need, I’ll help, if I can. It’s nothing bad, is it?”

  I wanted to spill my guts to her, but I knew that wasn’t the best idea. Really, I wanted to spill my guts to anyone who would listen. I couldn’t do that though. I had to keep stiff, keep strong.

  “No, it’s nothing like that. Damon’s doing great. Actually, it isn’t so much a favor. I need – I mean, I guess it is, but really, it’s…”

  Cat started cracking the hell up. Really like sputtering and almost choking on her laughter. The kind of thing you do before telling someone they owe you a new keyboard.

  “Lily, come on. You’re getting all worked up. It’s just me. Just Cat. What’s up?”

  “I have no idea why I’m so nervous. Look…” I took a breath, getting ready to spill it all. “Damon’s friend is in town tonight, and—”

  “Does he look anything like Damon?” she asked, cutting me off.

  Before I knew it, I said, “Yeah, they look like they could be brothers.”

  At that, I bit my tongue, but Cat didn’t react. At least, if she did, she hid it really well.

  “Meaning, yes?” she asked.

  “Yeah, they… Almost creepy, really, how much they look alike. Got the same hair, the same kinda…”

  “What you’re saying here,” Cat cut in, again. “Is that you’re asking me to go on a date with a tall, dark-haired, green-eyed giant? Who, I’m guessing, if he’s like Damon, is super nice?”

  I was really happy she kept doing that, because it made my job easier. “I guess so,” I said, laughing nervously.

  “And you’re treating it like I’m the one doing the favor?” She giggled softly. “I haven’t been out on a date since… Anyway, yeah, of course. Suddenly, I’m even happier than usual that I took that extra year, before going off to college.”

  “Oh, yeah,” I said, embarrassed that I managed to neglect to ask Cat anything about herself. “I totally forgot about that. Work going okay?”

  “Work,” she said, with an amused grunt. “Yeah, sure. It’s work. It isn’t much. I’m just doing some contracting stuff for an accounting firm out of Boston. I’m just doing their paper filing and stuff – nothing exciting. I mean, my dad’s proud, or whatever, but, yeah, that’s my life.”

  “What about you?” she asked. “Still doing the writing thing?”

  I hadn’t thought about writing in almost a month, since the last time I turned in a story to Jolie Evers, at the New York Times.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I mean, haven’t run anything for a few weeks, but I’ve got some ideas.”

  As she was saying, “That’s good,” my mind drifted.

  “Actually,” I said. “You asking just gave a really good idea. At least I think it is.”

  I had promised Jolie one more book about what she called “desert magic.” What better way to end a trilogy than with an ending, right? Somehow, I knew the ending to the story – to our story – was going to be a happy one. What I didn’t want to think about was what it was going to take to get there.

  “What’s his name?” Cat asked, breaking my brief daydream.

  “Huh?”

  “The guy? The one you set me up with.” She giggled again. “You really are lost in thought, huh? I heard about you writer-types do that, sometimes. Just kinda get lost in your own heads.”

  “Ha, yeah, I guess so. Sometimes, ideas just kinda pop in there, and you can’t get them out. You have to write them or they fester. You gotta get them down before they vanish. Makes you kinda paranoid sometimes.”

  As I was babbling, I pulled a notepad out of the desk, that I had recently excavated from a sea of videogames and action figures, and scrawled ‘end the story’ on it, then underlined it a couple times.

  “Hunter,” I said, forcing myself to stop thinking about either Damon, or work. “Hunter King.”

  “King? Like… Damon King?”

  Caitlyn started laughing, again. Her loud, honest laughter warmed me. I’d never heard her like this before. The flutter in my chest told me that I needed this more than I’d known.

  “Are you sure they’re not brothers?”

  “Pretty sure,” I said, catching her infectious laugh. “Although, sometimes, when they’re together, it’s pretty hard to tell them apart.”

  “Well, when are we gonna meet up?” she asked. “Tonight? And, what are we gonna do? Wanna do a double date thing?”

  “Yeah, double date. I don’t know when, though,” my voice caught in my throat. “Damon’s not really around right now,” I said, sparing her the details. “So I’m just gonna be third wheel unless you want to wait until Damon comes back.”

  “Oh, okay, cool,” Cat said. “No worries! I am really eager to meet this big hunk of man. I should be thanking you, but I forgot. So thanks! I’ve needed to meet someone for a while, just to forget if nothing else.”

  Cat paused for a second, and I heard her turn away from the phone and cough. “Sorry,” she said. “This weather’s got my allergies going. Anyway, If you won’t feel awkward, then I won’t either, okay?”

  I breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Yeah, yeah of course. I’ll tell you what – he’s supposed to get in today, sometime, so I’ll have him give you a call?”

  “Perfect!” she said. “Talk to you then. Or him, I guess.”

  We said our goodbyes, and when I put the phone down and looked at it laying there on the desk, I noticed something else. The drawer where I got the notepad was sitting about two inches open, just enough for me to see the bottom of a picture. I opened it and pulled it out, almost choking on my swallow, as I did.

  The picture was of us – of Damon and I – from high school. It had only been a year and a half since then but we were so different. We both looked so young, so innocent, and kind of wide-eyed and hopeful.

  “What a difference a year, a werewolf war, and a publishing deal can make,” I said, in a hollow voice. A dry, humorless laugh followed.

  Turning it over, I read where he wrote ‘Love you, Lily – Damon,’ and that was just about all it took. My eyes got all misty, and I couldn’t stop myself. Before I knew it, tears were rolling down my cheeks.

  Without thinking about it, I rested my hand on my belly. A smile spread across my face, as I thought about what was there, inside me, under that hand.

  “It’s you, Damon,” I whispered, looking at the picture. “This is you and me. We made this. This baby is you and me, and… It’s going to be perfect.”

  I kissed the picture, and blushed, for some reason. But when I did it,
I felt like he was with me, instead of out there with his brother, in danger.

  “Our baby will be perfect. I hope he’ll have his daddy’s eyes.”

  That was the first time I thought of the little thing growing inside me as anything other than an ‘it.’

  “You’re probably not even a week old, and I’m already making decisions for you.”

  I smiled, and another couple tears rolled down my cheeks.

  “I promise, I won’t be too overbearing,” I said. “Okay, maybe not promise. But, I’ll try. I know your daddy is going to be proud of you, no matter what. I will, too.”

  Then, from out of nowhere, I had a horrible vision of Damon never coming back. I saw him and Devin being ambushed, on the way back from Louisiana. My happy tears turned into sad, desperate ones.

  It was just my imagination, just me being emotional, I knew – or hoped, anyway.

  But, I couldn’t shake the visions. No matter how much I clenched my eyes shut and concentrated, all I saw was Damon’s face – hurt, bleeding, dying. I needed to stop, wanted to stop, but I couldn’t.

  Trembling, I closed my eyes and wrapped my fingers around the pencil I’d scribbled the note about my story with, and sat down, steadying myself in the chair, and taking a deep breath.

  “All right, Lily,” I said to myself, just to have some noise around. “All right. Get a grip. Everything’s fine. Nothing is happening. Nothing has happened. It’s just the green thing, the vision, whatever, getting the best of me.”

  I’d been fiddling with my pencil, just doodling to ease my mind some, like some kind of moving meditation.

  I remembered what Damon told me to do before – to just breathe, slowly, in and out – and filled my lungs. I trembled as I exhaled, but that was all I needed. The panic began to fade, the worry turning into excitement. Between the doodling and the drawing, I’d got myself back to level.

  Slowly, I nodded to myself, collecting my nerves. I thought maybe I should call Hunter. It was getting to be around noon, and, knowing him, he was hungry. Hell, knowing me, I was hungry. Just thinking of food, had my stomach growling.

  I reached for the phone, but just as I lifted it to command the tiny robot to dial Hunter, it started ringing.

  “Oh! hey!” I said, surprised. “I was just about to call you. How’d you do that?”

  “You’re the witchy one,” Hunter said, with a chuckle. “I still get little twinges, every time I go past that cabin. You sure you didn’t cross any wires in my head when you were in there?”

  “It’s good to hear your voice,” I said, with surprising honesty, and with a surprising shake in my voice. “It’s been a rough morning.”

  “Hey, hey. What’s going on? You okay? You and Damon have a fight, or something?”

  “No,” I said. “Nothing like that. We couldn’t even be fighting, if I wanted to.”

  And the truth was, I’d rather be fighting than have him gone.

  “He’s out of town for a day or two. I hope it’s a day or two. Pack business,” I said, not wanting to go into details.

  “Oh, no,” Hunter said, with a sigh. “Is it anything I need to know about?”

  I shook my head even though he wasn’t there to see.

  “I don’t think so. Not yet, anyway. But, hey, that’s nothing to worry about. You’re coming for a nice vacation, and I’m dumping my worries all over you. Good news!” I changed the subject, more for my own benefit than for his. “I’ve got good news!”

  “Yeah?” he asked. “Do I have a girlfriend?”

  I snorted so hard that I would’ve shot coffee out of my nose.

  “Well, I’m not sure if you have a girlfriend, exactly, but Cat did agree to go out with you.”

  “Son of a bitch!” Hunter swore. “People in this town have no idea how to drive.”

  “Huh? You’re here, already?” I asked, a little surprised. “I thought you weren’t gonna get here for another hour or so.”

  “Left a little early. What can I say? I was excited to see my pals. And anyway, things haven’t been the same in Scagg’s Valley since you guys were here. Everyone’s gotten all nervous about going out. They’re all scared of that that warlock stuff you guys fought off. Boring as all hell.”

  “Well, if you’re here already, want to get some lunch?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

  Hunter laughed. “Yeah, I’m the one who shoulda married this girl. Hell yeah, I want some lunch. Where am I headed?”

  I gave him the address of the deli that was, basically, always on my mind. I shot off a quick message to Cat on the off chance she wasn’t doing anything. Then I grabbed my stuff and headed out the door.

  This was exactly what I needed – a little break from the intensity, from the excitement.

  I checked the mirror, and sighed. I just had to think that stuff, again – all the calm-before-the-storm business. I couldn’t leave it alone.

  But, no matter what, I had friends. And, I had Damon. That would make it all okay.

  I checked the clock on the way out the door. Somehow I’d been staring at the mirror and fretting for almost ten minutes.

  As I sat down and fired up the ancient Suburban my grandpa gave me as a combination getting-married and I’m-getting-a-new-truck gift, my phone buzzed with a text. A moment later, another one came through.

  I didn’t bother looking at them until the first red light between the house and the deli.

  Fully expecting to pick it up and see Hunter lusting after a sandwich, I was more than a little amused to find him lusting after something else, entirely.

  The first was from Hunter.

  “Lily,” it read. “You’re a golden goddess.”

  I crinkled my face up, not really sure what he was talking about.

  “You’re some kind of genius, Lily. I owe you BIG,” the second one, from Cat, said.

  This was getting ridiculous.

  Almost on cue, it buzzed again with a picture message. I couldn’t believe it. Cat and Hunter, out front of the deli grinning like idiots made me grin. I never played mate-maker before, but I apparently had a gift for it. Second career, if the writing thing didn’t turn out.

  -9-

  Damon

  The long trip was almost over.

  Damon rolled over and spat the first mouthful of Arizona desert he’d tasted since leaving almost five days ago. The ground underneath him was cracked and hard. He rubbed dust out of the corners of his eyes.

  Dawn wasn’t for another hour, maybe two, and that was just fine. He and Devin only stopped because Devin wouldn’t shut the hell up about how much the zip-ties on his wrists hurt. At first, Damon hadn’t thought it would work. Plastic ties on a werewolf? How could it?

  It turned out to be like rubber bands on an alligator’s mouth. Devin couldn’t get enough leverage to pull his arms apart, so there he was. Stuck.

  And anyway, Damon put a pair of silver cuffs on top of those plastic zip-ties, just in case. If Devin managed to break the plastic, he’d be in for a world of hurt.

  Damon rolled to the other side, spat out another mouthful of red grit, and stood. The air coming across the desert was so cool that he’d slept bundled up in both a sleeping bag and all his clothes. He’d been warm enough, but being so bundled up made it hard to hear anything going on. He didn’t like that one bit.

  When he found Devin broken and bleeding by the side of the road, his brother told him someone was chasing him – chasing them, but he wasn’t sure who. They’d been running for the better part of two days.

  He hated sleeping almost worse than anything. Out here, he felt vulnerable and helpless, especially when his only companion was the brother who hated him.

  It took most of a day, and a whole lot of convincing, to get Devin to calm down enough to ride, but once he had, the going hadn’t been too tough.

  But of all the trouble – being chased, having to deal with Devin – the hardest part for Damon was missing Lily. In a distant second was listening to his brother whining.


  Damon stretched, then shoved his fists into the small of his back. He bent backwards, twisting in either direction, until he got a few satisfying pops.

  That’s when he first realized how quiet the morning was.

  One thing that never happened with Devin, was quiet.

  Damon looked around to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. Devin’s bike was propped up against a tree, and he could see part of his brother’s jacket, where he was leaned against it, between the wheel and the frame. But still, something was wrong.

  Damon dug his fists into his eyes, and rubbed the two hours and change of sleep from them. If there was one thing he’d learned about his brother, it was that trusting him was always the worst possible idea.

  But, there he was, asleep, behind his parked motorcycle.

  Slowly, Damon walked to a tree and pulled some jerky out of his jacket pocket. The stuff was tough and hard, and only tasted vaguely like the advertised hot sauce. At least it kept his stomach from growling. He and Devin stopped almost right after the Arizona state line, just far enough from the road to throw anyone following them. Now, he knew, it was just a matter of time, and a matter of Damon deciding when to wake up his complaining brother, and they’d be in Fort Branch before noon.

  Hopefully.

  A wind kicked up, cold and harsh, and the dust it carried stung Damon’s eyes. He pulled his shirt up to cover his mouth and squinted into the distance.

  The wind wasn’t letting up, though, not like it usually did. It just kept grinding away. Before he knew it, he was leaning forward, trying to keep from moving backwards. Something creaked, a brush-tree branch, probably, and then snapped behind him.

  A pair of headlights – or, maybe, two motorcycles moving abreast – approached from the far off horizon. Squinting into the blowing dirt, they were just faint little halos, but he was sure he saw them.

  Damon turned back toward Devin’s motorcycle, just in time to see the big metal beast start to lurch, threatening to fall and crush the somehow sleeping wolf, underneath it. Quickly, Damon made his way across the thirty or so feet that separated him and Devin’s bike.