Chapter Ten
‘Lydia!’
I threw open the front door with one hand and bundled my best friend into a hug with the other, holding her as tightly as humanly possible. I couldn’t recall a time I’d ever been so happy to see anyone in my whole life.
The sentiment, however, was not returned.
‘Oh, so you are alive, good to know.’
She broke away from my hug and stomped past me into the foyer. Her furious face was makeup free and it looked like she was still wearing her pyjamas, along with a pair of baby pink Converse. Lydia had been in a rush to get over here and did not wait to be invited inside.
‘Lyd?’ I said as she poked her head in the parlour, cast a filthy look back at me, then began a purposeful march up the stairs. ‘Lydia, wait.’
‘Why? To give you time to hide my brother?’
She didn’t even stop to turn around and look at me. ‘Jackson Charles David Powell, I know you’re here, get your ass out here right now.’
Jackson Charles David Powell did not get his ass out anywhere. He didn’t get the chance. Instead, Lydia stormed into my bedroom, flinging the door open with a vindicated yell.
‘Ah-ha!’ She jabbed her pointer finger into her brother’s chest with an accusatory glare. ‘I was right!’
‘Lydia Virginia Sarah Powell,’ Jackson replied with a shallow bow. ‘I guess there’s a first time for everything.’
‘It’s not what you think,’ I said, following her into the room, just in time to see my best friend punch her brother in the arm as hard as she could.
‘Really?’
‘Really,’ I replied.
Lydia turned on her heel and glared at me.
‘You mean the Oglethorpe Country Dumb fundraiser wasn’t attacked by a werewolf?’
‘OK,’ I said, taking a surprised step backwards. ‘It’s exactly what you think.’
‘How did you know?’ Ashley asked as Jackson massaged his newly injured arm. ‘Is this some kind of twin telepathy thing?’
‘No, it’s an I-woke-up-to-one-thousand-messages-about-a-wolf-escaping-from-Oatland-Island-wildlife-refuge-and-crashing-the-dance thing,’ Lydia replied.
‘Last night was a full moon. Jackson didn’t come home, neither of you are answering your phones.
Didn’t take a genius to work out y’all had to be mixed up in it somehow. ’
She shook her head at Ashley in disgust. ‘Twin telepathy? You really are as stupid as you look.’
‘Please don’t,’ I held Ashley back with one arm as she rolled her sleeves up to the elbows, ready to fight. ‘Lyds, start from the top. Who is saying what about a wolf?’
‘Depends who you ask,’ she replied, eyeing the biscuits on my desk.
‘There’s the official report that’s on the news, wolf escaped from the refuge, but obviously the refuge is denying it because it’s not true.
If you look at social media, Kayleigh Cavanaugh is crying about a rabid dog on Instagram, Maxon Jones is all over TikTok claiming he punched a wolf in the face, and Jennifer Vance texted me to say no one saw the two of you leave the ballroom, which naturally meant the wolf must’ve eaten y’all, and I know you can’t believe a word she says most times, but this time I had a bad feeling. And then—’
‘I think we’ve got it,’ Ashley cut her off, earning a bitter glare for her trouble. ‘Thanks for the “he said, she said”.’
‘And then,’ Lydia said again, louder this time, ‘I went to the DeSoto and found—’ She fished around in a tote bag hanging from her shoulder and pulled out several items, presenting them one at a time before laying them on the bed.
‘Em’s shoes, purse, and my idiot brother’s phone and valet ticket.
I know Jackson doesn’t abandon his car overnight without good reason, so there were only three possible answers. ’
‘Can’t wait to hear ’em,’ Jackson said.
She held her hands out and, without her having to say a word, Jackson grabbed a biscuit and tossed it to her. Ashley and I exchanged a look but neither of us said a thing.
‘One, y’all really were eaten by the wolf,’ she said, splitting the biscuit in half.
‘Two, y’all hooked up – and we both know that’s less likely than reason number one.
Or, number three, one or both of y’all got hurt and came back to Bell House to heal.
So, on a scale of one to absolutely, how extremely correct am I? ’
‘Very nearly absolutely,’ I told her, jumping in before her brother could. ‘Jackson tried to stop the wolf attacking me and got cut up for his effort.’
‘I knew it,’ she said, squinting in triumph before turning to her brother. ‘You really tried to fight a wolf?’
He nodded.
‘You are so stupid.’
‘I think you mean brave.’
She raised an eyebrow, a perfect mirror of the expression I’d seen on his face a few moments before.
‘You couldn’t find your butt with your hands in your back pockets. Here—’
She passed me my evening bag and I immediately opened it to find my phone. The screen was blank.
‘Probably waterlogged,’ Jackson said when I pressed every possible button over and over. ‘Put it in a jar of rice to dry out, we’ll have it working by tomorrow.’
‘Don’t panic,’ Lydia said. ‘You can message Wyn on my phone.’
Jackson held up his own phone, a picture of a baseball field on the lockscreen.
‘I can text him,’ he said. ‘I have his number.’
‘You do?’
He nodded at my surprised look.
‘Gave it to me when I drove him home. In case of emergencies.’
Ashley cleared her throat.
‘Speaking of Wyn and his wolfie brethren,’ she said, her voice loaded with caution. ‘I know no one wants to say it, but someone has to. The Were that attacked the party, was it from his pack?’
‘No idea.’ I reluctantly replayed the dark energy I’d felt all around us at the party. ‘Whoever it was, they were beyond strong and definitely not in town to see the sights.’
‘You think they know about Cole?’ Lydia asked.
‘I think we should assume they do. And I think we should assume this wasn’t a one-and-done attack.’
‘Meaning we have a month to figure this out before the next full moon,’ she replied.
I nodded, then turned to Jackson, who was busy tapping away at his phone.
‘My memory is still kind of foggy,’ I said. ‘Did you notice anything in particular? Colour of its eyes, any distinctive markings?’
Tucking his phone in his back pocket, he gave a shrug.
‘Not that I can recollect. Eyes could’ve been green, could’ve been yellow, rain made it hard to see. Coat was grey but I couldn’t pick it out of a line-up, I was more concerned with the teeth and the claws, if I’m being honest.’
A line-up of wolves. He had no idea how terrifying that thought was.
‘So, you’re not entirely stupid,’ Ashley said with a heavy sigh. ‘But you are mostly useless.’
‘For real, I don’t get any points for getting Em home in one piece?’ he said, throwing up his arms in frustration.
‘A million points,’ I said.
‘Minus the million you lose for taking her out in the first place,’ Lydia said.
‘And we’re done.’ Ashley clapped her hands together and ushered the twins towards the door. ‘I get a trillion points for tolerating both of y’all so early in the morning. Go on, scat, my little super witch needs a nap.’
The pair of them looked to me and I returned a rueful smile. I wasn’t exactly clamouring to be on my own but I needed space to concentrate and the twins weren’t exactly a calming influence.
‘I can’t go home like this.’ Jackson waved a hand at his bare chest as Lydia bent down to squint at his new scars before giving them an exploratory poke. ‘Lyds, go home and grab me a shirt.’
Without asking, she opened the drawer of my dresser and took out a powder puff pink baby tee. ‘You can wear this, I’m not your servant.’
He pulled the comically small T-shirt over his head. Within seconds it was ruined, stretched irrevocably out shape, but it was worth it to see the matching grins on Ashley and Lydia’s faces.
‘Can I speak with Em for a second, please?’ he said, beseeching eyes turned to Ashley.
‘Nuh-uh, you got her all last night,’ Lydia said, hip-checking her brother out of the way. ‘I need to speak to her.’
‘So in demand.’ Ashley looked from twin to twin to me, rolling her eyes at the slight inclination of my head. ‘Fine. Jackson, you’re with me. I have something big and heavy that needs moving in the kitchen.’
‘What?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said, clipping him around the back of the head then directing him out of my bedroom. ‘I’ll think of something when we get there. Just walk your ass down those stairs before I push you down.’
Lydia closed the door behind them, hovering by it until she’d decided they were all the way out of earshot. Then she turned to me with the most serious look I had ever seen on her face.
‘What’s wrong?’ I asked, prickling with concern.
‘I’m only going to ask you once,’ she replied. ‘But did you bang my brother?’
‘Lydia!’
‘Did you make out with him?’
‘We both almost died and you’re asking if we kissed?’
‘Gonna need verbal confirmation,’ she said, arms folded across her chest. ‘You forget, I know him. He can be very charming when he wants to be.’
‘Not that charming,’ I assured her. ‘No, I didn’t bang your brother. No, we did not make out. We went to the party, we talked, we danced, we battled a mystical creature, and all the way through, he was a perfect gentleman.’
I poked at a piece of extra crispy bacon, knowing Ashley had cooked it just the way I liked, but my appetite was completely MIA.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I should’ve called you or messaged as soon as I woke up, but I don’t even remember going to bed.’
Lydia frowned. ‘The bed you shared with my brother.’
‘He slept on the floor.’ I pointed at the pile of pillows and blankets. ‘Lyds, listen to me, I would never.’
After one very long moment, her eyes searing into me, she relented.
‘Fine, I believe you,’ she said, stuffing his jacket into her tote. ‘Thanks for saving his life, I guess. I might need that kidney someday. How dumb does a boy have to be to leap in front of a werewolf?’
‘If anyone is to blame here, it’s me,’ I replied. ‘He was only trying to help.’