Brush With Death (9 page)

H
orns blared as
I ran across the highway.  Playing chicken with human drivers may be foolish,
but this was the fastest way to complete my search. 

Plus, there’s nothing like a near death experience to get
your blood pumping.  No wonder our dog cousins chased cars—it was invigorating.

Unfortunately, my search for Yuki was far less exciting.  I
had hoped to catch Yuki’s scent by shifting into wolf form, but hadn’t found
any sign of her so far. 

I sniffed the game trail running alongside the busy road,
scenting deer and fox, but no Yuki.  I had run out places to search.  Should I
circle back to my motorcycle and shift into my human form?

Cal had designated the east side of town as my search area,
saying that he would look for Yuki to the west.  Had Cal turned up anything
while hunting the other side of town?

Being out of phone contact was becoming difficult.  I had
only been in wolf form for about an hour, but not knowing if Emma was still
safe was eating me up inside.  If I returned for my things, I could get a
status update from Cal and check in with Emma. 

It would be better than running around here in circles,
chasing my tail.  My tracking skills were heightened while in wolf form, but
the east side of town was too populated to run around freely.  I had already
taken too many chances.  If I didn’t change back soon, someone was likely to
call animal control, or take matters into their own hands.

I turned to the field behind me and started running back to
my motorcycle.  I needed to retrieve my things and shift back to my human
form.  I’d stashed my clothing and cell phone in a fallen tree a few yards from
my bike.  At this speed, I could be there in ten minutes.

Panting, I ran.  Emma was a phone call away.  I just had to
make it to my phone without an ignorant human shooting me, or hitting me with
their car.  Considering the way Americans drive, I’d take my chances against a
bullet.

I turned further from the road and raced across the open field.

I
lost sight of
Cal as he rounded a corner up ahead.  My heart started pounding in my chest and
my hands started to sweat.  Not only was that totally gross, but sweaty hands
also made it difficult to hold onto the handlebars.

It was completely silly for me to freak out.  I was
perfectly safe.  Cal was just checking the trail ahead.  He hadn’t abandoned
me.  I wasn’t in danger.

So why was I having a massive panic attack?

I’d been getting those more and more frequently. 
Like I
needed another thing to make my life crazy.
  Smelling ghosts, and now
seeing their glowing aura, was bad enough, but hyperventilating and sweating
was a major pain, and totally unattractive.

I pedaled around the bend in the trail and saw Cal waiting
for me.  My heart slowed and a cool breath of air rushed into my oxygen-starved
lungs. 
See, silly, he’s still there.  He wouldn’t run off and leave you
here all alone.

Relief washed away the panic, leaving me lightheaded.  I was
seeing spots and it took a minute to realize that two of those glowing dots
weren’t the product of my mind.

Cal had found the park gates.

Lights shone atop stone pillars at either side of the park
entrance and another pair of lights was moving toward them.  A car was
approaching from the direction of the parking lot, shining its headlights
across the gates.  Was it Emma, a random passerby, or the Grabber?

Only one way to find out.

Cal started down the trail with me riding close behind.  I
was anxious to get out of this place and out of my paint spattered clothes.  I
could feel paint stiffening my blouse and drying beneath my fingernails as I
rode. 

As I struggled to keep up with Cal, my tongue began to
throb.  It hadn’t hurt when I first bit it, but now my tongue ached with every
beat of my racing heart. 

If the car at the gates belonged to Emma, I’d let her brew
me up one of her noxious teas.  Adrenaline had pushed away my pain, but now
every part of me was beginning to hurt.  My back and neck ached from my nap in
the woods and a cramp was forming in my left leg.  A headache was also creeping
in behind my eyes, probably the result of being in close proximity to two smelly
ghosts.

I pushed through the pain and exhaustion to follow Cal
across the last stretch of park.  When we neared the gates, we both stopped in
the center of the trail.  Cal came to stand in front of me, his back nearly the
same height as my bike while in his wolf form.  He made a formidable barrier
between me and any danger.

I raised a paint covered hand to shield my eyes against the
glare of headlights.  The car was idling at the curb with its headlights aimed
right at us.  I couldn’t see who was in the car.  If it wasn’t our friends, we
were in trouble.  There was no way Cal would pass for a dog.

Son of a dung beetle.

In my race to escape the park, and Cal’s fierce effort to
protect me, we’d made a mistake.  Unless this car contained the Grabber, Cal
will have exposed his true form for no reason.  Even if the car was Emma’s,
Gordy and Katie would be waiting inside, and they didn’t know Cal’s secret.

They had no idea that werewolves existed.

M
y friends
raced toward us, heading for the park gates, Yuki on her bicycle and Calvin in
his wolf form.

That was a problem.

What was I supposed to tell Gordy and Katie?  “Oh look,
there’s Yuki and her pet wolf” just wasn’t believable.  Plus, Katie had been
listening to Yuki through my phone.  She’d heard Yuki talking to Calvin.  So
even if Katie and Gordy believed that the wolf was tame, how would I explain
Calvin’s sudden disappearance?

Of course, telling them that the wolf was in fact Calvin, that
he was a werewolf, wasn’t believable either.  And most importantly, it wasn’t
my secret to share.

But what was I supposed to do?

Maybe if I got out and let Yuki and Calvin know who was
shining high beams at their faces, Calvin could run off and change into human
form.  There’d be lots of questions, but we could deal with that later.

“You two stay in the car,” I said.  “I’m going to see if
Yuki’s alright.”

“There’s a w-w-wolf,” Katie said.

“It’s alright,” I said.  “I’m used to working with large
animals.  This is what I do all day.  I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Gordy asked.  His voice was a whisper for my
ears only.  He didn’t want to question my judgment in front of Katie, but he
was willing to come with me if needed backup.

I nodded.  Reaching for the door handle, I swung my medical
bag over my shoulder.  I hoped that I wouldn’t need it, but there was something
on Yuki’s clothes that looked suspiciously like blood.

Hopefully it was just a trick of the light.

I was better at treating animals than people, which was the
reason the wolf pack elders were sending me to veterinary school, but I could
patch up a human in a pinch.  Walking toward Yuki, I figured this was one of
those situations. 

The clinical part of my brain began assessing injuries as
she came closer.  There was dried blood on Yuki’s skirt, blouse, arms, face,
and hands.  Her pupils were constricted against the bright light, a good sign
that she wasn’t drugged—willingly or against her will.  Thin red welts rose on
the sides of her face and across her arms.

What had happened to my best friend?

“Hey,” I said, nodding at Calvin and Yuki both.

“Hey,” Yuki said.

Calvin’s tongue lolled in a goofy wolf grin.  Apparently, he
was happy to see me.  We were making progress.

“Calvin, if you don’t want Katie and Gordy asking too many
questions, go run off and change forms,” I said.  “They’re in too much shock to
think about it right now, but if you stick around they’re going to want to know
what a wild wolf is doing with Yuki.  They’re also going to start getting
worried about where you are.  Katie’s been listening in on Yuki’s phone and
heard her talking to you.”

“And they don’t know about werewolves,” Yuki said.

“Right,” I said.

Calvin looked at Yuki, and for a moment I thought he
wouldn’t leave her side.  Werewolf boys were some of the most stubborn,
protective creatures on the planet.

I should know, since I was dating one myself.

“Go on,” Yuki said.  “Just come back really quick.”

Sweat shone on her pale face, but Yuki held her head high
and put her hands on her hips.  It seemed to pain her to be separated from Calvin,
but she could be just as selfless as he.  She had made it clear before that she
would never do anything to risk discovery of his secret.

Yuki was trying to protect him.

Calvin seemed to finally realize this and loped away.  I
closed the last few feet between us and took Yuki’s hand.

“Where are you hurt?” she asked.

“I hurt all over,” she said, shaking her head.  “But I’m
alright.  “Just a bit tongue and some bumps and bruises…and one of my
headaches.”

“What about the blood?” I asked.

That much blood couldn’t possibly have come from a cut on
her tongue.

“Blood?” she asked.

Yuki looked down at herself and laughed. 

“Oh, that’s not blood,” she said.  “It’s paint.”

With no more worries of serious injury, I wrapped Yuki in a
fierce hug.

“Don’t ever do that again,” I said.

“Do what?” she asked.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I said.  “Fight with me, stop talking to
me, scare me half to death…”

“Okay, okay, I promise,” she said, smiling.

“Don’t worry,” Calvin said, walking up behind Yuki.  “I’m
not ever letting her out of my sight again.  She won’t have another chance to
scare us all into thinking she’s dead.”

Seeing the wolf leave, and Cal appear, was Gordy and Katie’s
cue to get out of the car and join our little reunion.  Gordy was chewing his
hair and Katie fidgeted with the ties on her blouse.

“You guys thought I was dead?” she asked, smile fading.

“It’s a long story,” I said.  “We can talk over pizza after
we get you home and cleaned up.”

“Okay,” she said.

My phone rang, making everyone jump. 

“Sorry,” I said.  I dug my phone out of my pocket and saw
Simon’s eyes flash on the screen.  “It’s Simon.”

“Of course it’s Simon,” Yuki said.  “We mentioned pizza.”

A
fter strapping
my bike to Emma’s car, my friends drove me home.  I felt like I was in a daze. 
The entire trip was a blur, with little pit stops of clarity when each friend
said goodbye. 

We dropped Cal off at a picnic area where he’d left his
truck.  He kissed my forehead and promised to meet us for pizza later.  He
whispered something about needing to retrieve his shoes so he could go to the
restaurant with us.  It was only then that I realized he was barefoot.  
Oh,
right, wolves don’t wear sneakers.

Next we left Gordy and Katie at the pizza parlor.  They went
inside armed with a hefty pizza order.  Apparently, worrying had made everyone
ravenous.

My stomach growled at the scent of garlic and tomato sauce
that filled the car as Gordy and Katie closed the door and Emma prepared to
drive away.  All I’d had to eat was that one handful of trail mix.  Finding the
skull had made me feel queasy, but now I was starving.

Usually it was smelly ghosts that ruined my appetite, now it
was dead bodies—I was moving up in the world. 
Lucky me.

I wanted to know more about the skull in the woods, and my
new smelly friend, but my friends came first.  Emma brought me home and chatted
with my parents about our upcoming graduation while I ran upstairs to shower
and change into clothes that didn’t look like they were spattered with blood. 
The “I’m the survivor of a zombie massacre” couture was kind of cool, but Emma
assured me that our fellow diners at the pizza parlor wouldn’t appreciate the
look.

As usual, she was probably right.

I scrubbed myself pink.  Paint had soaked through my
clothes, leaving red circles on my skin that looked suspiciously like roses. 
The smell of roses permeating my bathroom added to the illusion.  I poured more
sandalwood scented shower gel onto the loofa and continued to scour my skin.

When the worst of the stains were removed, and the water
running down the drain ran clear, I finally stepped out.  There was no more
delaying the inevitable.  It was time to face my friends.

And the ghost waiting behind my bathroom door.

Y
uki sat so
quietly in the passenger seat.  It was almost like she wasn’t there.  For some
reason, that made me sad. 

I’d missed my friend these past few weeks.  To finally have
her back in my life, but not knowing what to say to her seemed terribly
unfair.  I had hoped that Yuki would be the first to talk, being the vivacious
one and all, but as soon as we’d left her parents’ house she had withdrawn into
herself.

I snuck a glance over at Yuki and didn’t like what I saw. 
She was sitting slumped in her seat, picking at ragged, paint stained
fingernails. 

“So, what were you painting?” I asked.

I needed to pry Yuki out of her shell.  Talking about our
recent fights over Simon, or her debilitating fear of the school supply closet,
would only stress her out.  I figured that bringing up the skull she’d
discovered also fell into the “stress Yuki out” category.  That left one
topic—the mysterious painting strapped on the back of Yuki’s bike.

Where had she been on her bicycle?  What was so important
that she had to paint it late in the evening?  And why had she lied to Calvin
about it?

“Huh?” Yuki said.  “Oh, right, the painting.  I guess you
saw it on the back of my bike.”

“Well, that and you were covered in paint,” I said.

“It’s for art class,” she said.  “There’s this final project
that I have to present next week, if I want to graduate.  I kind of left it
until the last minute.”

Yuki tilted her head, shaking a curtain of dark hair down to
cover her face.  Was she embarrassed?  I may be really into grades and school
performance myself, but I’d never judge Yuki for slacking.  Her procrastination
just seemed to confirm my suspicions that she was suffering from PTSD. 
Finishing projects and looking ahead to the future were difficult tasks for
someone who had recently faced life-changing fear.  She didn’t need to feel
ashamed.

I just hoped her ability to graduate wasn’t at risk.

Being kept back was bad enough, but I didn’t want to think
about how hard it would be for Yuki to face that school, and the location of
her confinement, without any of her friends there for support.  We wouldn’t be
there to protect her.  Yuki would have to face her fears alone.

I’d have to look into Yuki’s grades later, but now I was
curious about this painting.

“So why did you tell Calvin you were staying home to study
for exams?” I asked.

“Once it was graded, I wanted to give the painting to Cal…as
a graduation present,” she said, shrugging.  “That’s why I didn’t tell him, and
why I went somewhere outdoors to paint.”

“Oh, right,” I said.  That made sense.  “Calvin loves the
woods, and the park.  But why were you deep into the park trails?”

“Why else?” she said.  “A smelly ghost led me there.”

That sounded like a story that Simon and Calvin would also
be interested in hearing.  I pulled into a parking spot outside the pizza
parlor deep in thought.  After Gordy and Katie leave tonight, I was going to
make Yuki spill about this ghost.

But first, it was time to eat.