Revealers (11 page)

“Nice work,” Connor says.

I hope he didn’t mean that.

I purposefully avoid making eye contact with Connor, and join in the circle around our wolf. I hold my palms toward her and gasp. The woman’s mouth looks like it’s been sewn closed with thick, black thread. Normally a silencing spell would just keep someone from talking, but for whatever reason, Sascha decided to put a little more effort into this one.

The woman’s eyes bulge, and her nostrils flare as she struggles to open her mouth. A wave of nausea hits me as Kelsey’s voice echoes in my head.

Do you always torture your vics?

I hear the van door shut, and know Connor has headed back away from the scene.

Coward.

The second the thought pops into my head I immediately feel guilty, but the word lingers.

“Are we ready, people?” Margo yells.

I nod, wondering if everyone else was as stunned by Sascha’s spell as I was.

“Reveal!” we all yell.

The ball of light forms over the woman’s head. I fix my eyes on her face to see if the transformation will break the thread tying her mouth shut. Part of me hopes it does. Her face draws out into the snout of a wolf, and I see the string magically threading itself through her white fur to keep the new, longer mouth shut. I turn away as bile rises in my throat.

“Jules!” Dani yells.

I swallow and take out my gun. I turn back toward the wolf, aim at her heart, and fire.

The wolf’s body flinches once, and blood stains the white fur. She starts to change back and I’m relieved to see the thread crumble and fall from her face.

Connor gets out of the van, and whistles a bit from a song as he lays the body bag next to her.

“Connor!” I say. “Stop that.”

“What?” he asks looking puzzled.

“The whistling!”

“Oh, sorry, I forgot you have a soft spot for wolves.”

“I don’t have a soft spot—it’s just, it’s just disrespectful!”

He holds his hands up in the air in front of him. “Okay—sorry.”

“Never mind that,” Z says. “How is it you were the person the wolf was going to meet, and what the hell was up with your silencing spell, Sascha? That was a bit much, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” Dani says softly. “Her mouth—it…” Dani brings her fingers up to her lips and doesn’t finish her sentence.

Sascha looks around at all of us, visibly shaken. “I—I didn’t mean to do that—honest! I was so scared and it came out stronger than I’d wanted.” She grabs the chain of her necklace with a shaking hand. “When I touched the stone I had a vision. It was horrible. I didn’t want it to come true. I had to stop that lady from …” She turns to Margo. “Did you know I’d see the meetinghouse? Is that why you told me to hold it?”

“I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to see anything, but I was hoping you would,” Margo says.

She sounds tired. “I wanted you to stop running at the mouth—so it wouldn’t come true. All of us have to do exactly what we’re supposed to—”

“Because if we don’t,” Sascha says, “one of us is going to Hell.”

I shiver in the cold and wish the wind wasn’t sucking away all the heat from the small blaze we have going in the campsite’s fire-pit. We’re all looking at Sascha, waiting for her to talk, as the wood crackles and pops trying to warm the night air.

“All I know,” Sascha says, “is when I grabbed the stone in the center of the necklace, I saw a demon in the meetinghouse—like it was right in front of me. And then everything speeded up and I only saw snatches of faces. I can’t even say who exactly was there because the whole thing was over in a second or two. But there was a demon and it took someone, that I’m sure of. I heard screaming and then I was overwhelmed with a feeling of loss. I knew that someone had messed up and someone had been taken.” She bites her lower lip. “I could even smell brimstone.”

I look at Connor on the other side of the fire. He fidgets his feet in the dirt and I wish I could apologize for snapping at him before. I wish he were sitting next to me, with his arms around me making me feel safe, instead of pretending we aren’t together.

“Helena told me I had to keep the wolf from talking,” Sascha continues. “After I had the vision, I was afraid if I didn’t do what she’d said it might come true.”

“Is that what you saw, too, Margo?” I ask. “The demon?”

Margo stares into the fire and nods. “Yeah,” she says quietly. “I saw the same scene on my birthday during the ceremony. I noticed my necklace was glowing while Helena was talking. I reached down, and when my fingers touched the stone I saw the same thing. It took every ounce of energy I had not to scream because for a second I thought it was really happening. I looked at Helena and my mom to see if maybe they’d seen something, too, but they were going on like nothing happened.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve held that necklace hoping to get a better glimpse—but it all flashes by so fast. I finally had to stop wearing it because I was driving myself crazy.”

Margo reaches out and holds Sascha’s hand and gives it a squeeze. Dani and I exchange looks. I’m sure she’s feeling as guilty as I am for what we’d said about Margo earlier.

Z clacks her tongue on her teeth. “So what does it mean?”

“Margo and Sascha’s birthstones are supposed to enable the power of foresight,” I say, “but I don’t know if what they saw will definitely come true or not.”

“We have to make sure it doesn’t,” Margo says. “We have to follow the rules.”

“Damn,” Z says. “Things are getting weirder and weirder, and now we have to worry about a demon snatching one of us.”

“I’m scared,” Dani whispers.

No one says anything. We watch the fire and I wonder if everyone is thinking what I am.

Who will mess up and who will the demon take?

“What about you, Connor?” Z says, breaking the silence. “You still haven’t told us why was the wolf coming up here to meet you?”

“Oh, well, she was trying to blackmail the coven,” he says quickly, scratching his nose.

“She found out about us and threatened to spread around who the hunters are—which could affect your safety. She offered us a price for her silence and we agreed.” He folds his arms across his chest, and looks at the ground, kicking a rock toward the fire pit. “We set up the drop-off and you took care of our blackmailer.”

My heart starts to pound faster than it already was. Connor’s lying. Dani starts asking something, but I don’t hear it. All I can hear is the word liar in my head. I wish I had the Ouroboros to prove I’m wrong, but his body language is telling me I’m not.

But why would he lie about the wolf?

“What if a bunch of wolves decided to hunt you before you could hunt them? They could catch you totally unprepared.” I hear Connor say.

“Wow,” Dani says. “To think about someone hunting us—I can’t even imagine.” She takes the flask from Zahara, takes a gulp, and is about to pass it to Sascha, but draws her hand back.

“I’ll take a little,” Sascha says, “… just to take the edge off.” Dani gives it to her and she takes a long drink. She wipes her mouth on her sleeve and hands it to Connor. “I think it’s safe to say we all need to be careful. Keeping our noses clean is the smartest, and really the only thing we can do right now.”

Z shakes her head. “But this is freaking nuts!”

“There has to be something more you can tell us!” I say. “Do you even know how crazy this is for the rest of us?”

“Yeah,” Z says. “With the way you two are acting, I gotta say I’m no longer looking forward to my birthday. I’ve grilled my mom a million times about all this shit, but she won’t say a thing. I thought for sure we’d get some scoop from you guys.”

Sascha sighs. “I wanted to tell you some stuff, but after that vision—I gotta side with Margo on this. I can’t.”

Margo scowls at her. ” You of all people should have come to that conclusion at the initiation!”

Sascha hunches over and her long hair falls forward, hiding her face. “I know. I know,” she says. “I was just so freaked out. And then I had a drink—or two.” Her voice cracks and her shoulders shake. “It made it easier to pretend there was nothing to worry about—to pretend I didn’t care.”

“Well, look, it’s only a couple more weeks until everyone’s eighteen,” Margo says, “and then we can decide as a group how we want to handle things. This coven has been living under a shadow for a long time, and it’s about time someone did something about it.”

“But my birthday isn’t for another month!” I say.

“Be thankful,” Sascha says.

“Just hang in there,” Connor says, a little too cheerleader-y after what’s just gone down.

“It’ll all work out.” He stands and fishes the keys from his pocket. “It’s really late. Let’s pack it in, okay?”

Dani looks at her watch. “Two fifty! God, I’m so gonna bomb my quiz.” She picks up her broom and then glances back at the fire. “Oh, we’d better not leave it going—it could spread or something.”

“Always the Girl Scout,” Margo mutters.

Dani gives an exasperated sigh. “Well, it could!” She points toward the fire. “Out!”

The fire sizzles and dies away, and I draw my cape closer to my body to capture some of the fading warmth.

Everyone else mounts their sticks, but I walk over to Connor.

“I’ll help you with the body if you want,” I say, trying to keep my voice without emotion, so it sounds like a casual offer. I catch the looks darting between Zahara and Margo. “It’s really a two-person job,” I add.

I hear Z clack her tongue. “Later.”

Dani gives me a quick smile. “Bye!”

They take off. We watch them fade from view, and then Connor reaches out for my hand.

My first impulse is to pull it away, but his hand is warm, and I so want to be wrong about him.

“Thanks for helping,” he says. “I wish it weren’t so late— we could have some fun in the van.”

I give him a horrified look. “The van? The one you cart dead bodies around in? And after everything that just happened?”

Connor laughs nervously. “Well, when you say it like that it doesn’t sound so romantic.”

“This isn’t funny!” I snap, yanking my hand from his. “There’s nothing funny about anything that happened tonight.”

My breath comes out in fast steaming plumes as I stare into his shocked face.

“Why did you lie about the wolf?”

His eyes grow wide and then he looks away. “I had to.”

“Why?” I ask, surprised and relieved he admitted it.

He takes my hand again and pulls me gently so I’m facing him. “Jules, there is so much going on, so much stuff you couldn’t have imagined in your wildest dreams. I came up with an idea to try to fix things—fix things so we can make those changes we’ve talked about.” He smiles a huge beaming smile. “And my mom’s on board. Well, she doesn’t know everything.” He leans in and kisses me quickly.

I study his face—he looks excited and happy.

“But you’re right about the wolf; she wasn’t blackmailing the coven. She did know about us, though, and you know how dangerous that could be. That’s all I can say right now. Can you trust me? For a little bit longer?”

“Connor, my head is absolutely spinning with all the secrets. I don’t know what to think anymore.”

Of course, I’m keeping secrets, too. Why haven’t I told Connor about Evan and Finn? I look up at him and he gives me a lopsided grin.

“Just a little bit longer,” he says again. He tilts my chin up and kisses me hard.

I push out all my worries and kiss him back hungrily.

“You’re still coming over tomorrow after school, right?”

“Yeah,” I say.

“Don’t forget to bring the ring. I have to make sure it’s back before it’s missed.”

“Where’s your mom going to be anyway?”

“She’s talking to some people about my idea—they wanted a face-to-face meeting.” He smiles. “Cross your fingers, this could be what we’re waiting for.” He wraps me in his arms and spins me around.

“Don’t make me wait too long,” I laugh, breathless.

“Soon! I promise,” he says.

We walk over to the woman’s body. The cold breeze whips past me, and the lightness I just felt is carried off with it. I wonder if there’s someone waiting for her at home. Did she tell a boyfriend or a husband she’d be back soon? I look down at her body—the torn clothes, the bullet hole leaking blood.

I did that to her.

I close my eyes and try to think back—past Kelsey—to the last time I’d felt more than a passing inkling of guilt after taking someone’s life.

My mind is blank.

How many years have I have been immune from truly caring?

Wolves kill, I hear my mother say as we sat curled up on the couch when I was five. She held a witch ball in her hand. The bottom of the clear ball was covered with blue and purple spots of melted glass— my favorite colors. Inside the ball, the colored spots rose into thin glass threads where they connected with the top, ready to catch a spell.

Mom raised her hand and whispered, enchanting the ball. Yellow light swirled up and down the glass threads and finally a round moon appeared within the glass. And if the wolf’s victim should survive, the cycle of killing continues with each tortured full moon.

I snuggled up closer to her, wondering what she meant by “tortured full moon. ” I reached out for the ball— holding it in my own small hand. The moon dissolved into a twinkle of stars.

Each star stretched out tiny black wings and took the form of a bat. The bats flapped their wings, dipping and diving around the threads. Vampires turn their victims into hollow, hungry creatures that prey on the living with an insatiable thirst.

The bats disappeared as the ball filled with gray smoke. Two black eyes with pupils flickering fire appeared in the middle. I caught a glimpse of a piglike snout with long, curled teeth jutting out. My mother took the ball from my hand just as I was about to drop it.

Demons covet the human soul more then all the riches in the world. They’ll stop at nothing to bargain, trick, or deceive to get what we hold most precious. And that is why Mommy has to go out again tonight.

I looked past her toward the doorway where Cady Tompkins, who’d be watching me that night, stood.

And why someday, you will, too— She paused and whispered a spell. The ball emptied and only my reflection— wide and distorted on the glass— shown. To keep the world safe.