Secrets of the Sleeper: True Nature Series: Book One (10 page)

“Oh yeah. Um. That was really weird—well, even weirder, I guess. He said that Caroline always wished we could meet—meaning Mom and me. How cracked is that?”

“Shank steak! It’s so screwed up! No, give me a minute. I watch all sorts of screwed-up shows. I can put this together.” Now she scooted off the bed to pace.

Suddenly her cell phone rang. We both jumped and screamed, but just a little. Then we laughed hysterically even though we weren’t feeling humorous. Nerves.

“It’s my mom. What time is it? Oh my gravy, it’s 9:00!” She quickly answered her phone.

“Sorry, Mom. I wasn’t watching the time. Yeah, I’m heading home right now.” Pause. “Yes, I’m walking out the door.” Pause. “Okay, okay. See you in a few!” She hung up.

“I know,” I said. “You’ve got to go.”

“Where’s your dad, Tru?”

“He had to work late, I guess, but he should be home any minute. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. For some reason, I don’t feel like I have to worry about those wolves or whatever they were.” I hugged her. “You are such a great friend, Ruthie!”

“I didn’t get to analyze your dreams yet!” she complained.

I laughed, some of the tension leaving me. “Another day, another session, Doctor!” She laughed with me.

Suddenly we both heard the garage door opening. I peeked out my bedroom window to see my dad’s truck pulling in.

“Shoot!” I said. “Dad’s home. You better go fast!” Now we were giggling like old times.

“I’m out of here.” Ruthie was through the front door before Dad made it into the house. Even though I’d told Ruthie I was fine with her leaving, I felt relieved that Dad was finally home.

Somehow, talking it all over with Ruthie made everything seem like it wasn’t happening to me, like it was some show we had seen together. I was able to greet Dad like I’d had a completely normal day. Was it so bad that I was hiding it all from him?

Vampires and Werewolves

The next morning, I
was so nervous, I got clumsy, and Dad was giving me odd looks over breakfast. I deflected most of his questions by asking about his work—he loved to talk about the latest techno-gadget. But it wasn’t working as well as normal. He knew something was up, so I hurried through my Cheerios and dashed back to brush my teeth before Ruthie showed up.

I dropped a perfunctory kiss on Dad’s cheek and ran out the door just as she was pulling up.

“Hey there,” Ruthie said. “I see you survived the night. Anything else happen?” She looked at me expectantly.

I eyed her carefully. She looked hopped up on caffeine. “Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, yeah. I didn’t sleep so well, maybe. Just going over everything in my mind. Had a hard time waking up, so I downed some of my dad’s emergency energy drinks.”

“As in plural?” Oh man.

“Yeah, yeah.” She waved away my concern. “So what else happened?”

“Well, not much, not really. No unexpected visitors, if that’s what you mean.” I looked more closely at her. Her skin looked a little pale, her eyes big and wide. “Why? Anything happen to you?” Perhaps I shouldn’t have told her about last night. Now she was scared, too, and dipping into Red Bull.

“I don’t know. It was just weird. The whole time I drove home, I felt strange, like someone was watching me. I think I was just paranoid. And I could have sworn I saw a wolf along the side of the road on my way here this morning.” She gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white.

“Oh Ruthie. I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have gotten you involved.” My stomach clenched in regret. But she just shrugged and pulled away from my house.

“Nah! Don’t worry. I’m glad you told me. It’s good for my character bank, you know? Now I know how a paranoid person feels.” She laughed shortly. Ruthie was in the Drama Club and was always talking about new characters to sock away in the bank so she could use them for new roles. When she’d first shown an interest in drama, I had tagged along with her and tried out or helped wherever. We quickly realized acting was not one of my talents, and so I had gracefully bowed out. We considered ourselves even since Ruthie had tried basketball for me but dropped out because she had a tendency to help the other team more than ours. We settled for attending each other’s events.

“Any new dreams?” Ruthie asked.

After keeping my dreams a secret for so long, it was a relief to be sharing this side of me with her, strange, but nice at the same time.

“Actually, yes.” There was only one dream, and I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. “But it’s even weirder than the last ones.”

“Well, out with it.”

“Okay. It’s about vampires and werewolves.”

“Better than cavemen—at least from my point of view.” She smiled. “Wait! Werewolves. Wolves in your backyard. Ham shanks! Are we talking about the same thing?”

“Well, maybe. One of the wolves from my backyard looked a lot like the one in my dream…”

“Actually, it’s not a big surprise you dreamed about it. I didn’t sleep so well myself. It must have scared the meat loaf out of you. Did you wake up your dad?”

“No, thank goodness. The strange thing was that it wasn’t as scary as it was sad. Maybe I’ve seen too many movies, I don’t know. I’ve grown up on this stuff, you know? Anyway, again, I’m watching everything, but not really there. This blonde girl and this big guy, who’s pretty hunky, you know, in a Euro-hot way, well, except for the glowing red eyes.”

Ruthie interrupted me. “Oh please! Red eyes? Really. I’ve seen that movie!”

“I know, right! See why it didn’t seem so scary? I kind of knew what was going on.”

“What about the girl? Was she a vampire, too?”

“No, they were making out on this beach blanket—”

“That’s more my style,” Ruthie interjected.

“—And the beach was short, with lots of trees above it. It looked like the edge of a forest—maybe in Canada or something.”

“How do you know?”

“I don’t, it just looked like those TV shows that film all over the world, you know, showing nature and stuff.”

“Never seen them,” Ruthie said dismissively.

“Well, anyway, this is when it gets twisted. He suddenly gets a whiff of something that freaks him out, and he twists around hissing with his fangs out just as a wolf streaks out of the trees and leaps down in front of them.”

“Been there, seen that! The movie already left the theaters.”

“Anyway, it stopped in front of the man and woman and sort of growled and sniffed and stuff. And the vampire guy growled back and hissed at him with his pointy fangs. The girl was looking all scared and hiding behind him.”

“Yeah,” urged Ruthie.

“Well, the wolf attacked all of a sudden. It was insane! And the vamp and wolf were going at it while the girl screamed.”

“Oh my gosh! What happened?” demanded Ruthie.

I could see it clearly in my mind. The man was blonde and pale, his hair long and wavy down to his shoulders, with longer than normal sideburns. His red eyes were like rubies, and they glittered with hatred as he hissed. He was dressed in loose jeans and a long leather jacket. The girl wore her straight blond hair long down her back. She wore jeans and a black leather jacket.

At first, they had been playful, laughing and kissing. And then the guy became serious when he said he needed to eat something because she smelled too good. The girl seemed like all those idiots in the movies who think the vampire is so romantic and stuff, but still, she really seemed to love him. She looked like maybe in her twenties. And the guy not much older, but like your typical GQ vampire model.

All of a sudden, the vampire had frozen and looked off toward the forest, his nostrils flaring. He had flipped around at an impossible speed, putting himself between the girl and the wolf who was sticking his head out of the trees sniffing like he was tracking something. When he saw them, he growled and then pounced down upon them. They growled and hissed at each other before attacking. The poor girl had been left with her arms reaching toward the guy, her mouth framing the word “No!”

“Tru! What happened!” Ruthie slapped my knee to pull me back into the present.

“Oh, it was so sad.” And it was. The two creatures just about ripped each other apart. And the girl had watched, terrified.

“Um,” I continued, “they were all bloody and torn up. It looked like the wolf was winning, too. The wolf had a hold of his shoulder and was just shaking him back and forth really hard. That’s when the girl surprised him. I guess she had a pocketknife or something. She snuck up on the wolf and jammed it into his side and jumped back.”

“Oh my gosh!”

I suddenly realized we were pulled over to the side of the road, near the area we had seen the wolf before. My eyes scanned the trees.

“Ruthie, we should probably keep going to school.”

“I’ve got to hear this out, girl! I can’t drive straight listening to this!”

“Okay. But we better not be late!” I continued the dream. “The wolf dropped the vampire in a pile of dead leaves and turned on the girl, but it didn’t seem angry, which is weird because, well, she stabbed it, right?”

“Yeah. But what did the vamp do?”

“The vampire just lay there like he was dead. And the wolf limped slowly up to the girl, who just stood there—I would have run, wouldn’t you?” I asked.

“Of course, and screamed, too!”

“Well, the wolf just sniffed her up.”

“Ew! That’s gross, Tru!”

“No, no. Not like your stupid butt-sniffer dog, Freddy. Geez! No, it kind of smelled up her arm. The wolf was huge, remember. But it didn’t seem like it was going to hurt her. Then it licked her cheek and around to the back of her neck, and that’s when it bit her.”

“What the crap? It
did
bite her? That seems really intentional. Did she die?”

“No. The girl screamed then, and the vampire woke up all covered in leaves and pine needles and pulled himself together enough to knock the wolf away from the girl. In the process, the wolf got his face cut open and then died.”

“What? It died? I thought the vamp was dead. Man! Was the girl dead, too?”

“No, she didn’t pass out or anything, but she was hurting and crying. The vamp sort of healed, picked her up, and ran off. And that’s when I woke up.”

“Oh-my-gravy!” Ruthie punctuated each word. “That is so bizarre! But what happened afterward? This is going to drive me crazy! Will you dream the next episode tonight?”

I gave her a sidelong look. “What do I know? It’s something different all the time lately. I don’t know what’s going on! Can we get to school now?” I asked. Retelling my dream had exhausted me. I felt like I was missing something, that there was more to the dream.

And I still hadn’t decided what I was going to do about Zander today.

“Okay, okay.” She pulled back on to the road and had to speed to make it on time.

Frenemy

I was prepared to
face Zander and his lying—albeit very attractive—uh, lips, however, he was a no-show that day. I had gotten nervous for nothing. I didn’t have to face him or whatever story he was going to concoct to explain the strangest day of my life. Disappointment, gratitude, and confusion swirled around me as I shut my locker and headed toward Ruthie’s. She met me halfway, questions in her eyes.

“So, was he in class?” she asked. He wasn’t at lunch and we began to suspect he was absent today.

“Not here,” I replied.

“Son of a butcher,” swore Ruthie.

Zander wasn’t the only one MIA today. Isaac and Phoebe missed class, too. When I asked Ruthie about it, she shrugged it off as normal for them. Apparently, they missed school a lot last year, too.

Suddenly, a dark shadow rounded the corner and pounced with a “Raaahwl!” We both jumped, completely caught off guard, screaming instinctively, which in turn startled our attacker, Val, enough that he jumped back into the lockers with a loud clang.

“That was awesome!” guffawed a deep voice from across the way. Jake was doubled over laughing.

“You’re a jerk, jerk, JERK!” yelled Ruthie as she began slapping Val’s arm.

“Hey! Ow! That’s my throwing arm!” wailed Val. He wrapped his arms around her to keep her from beating up on him, laughing at her struggles.

I was still shaken and bent to pick up the books Ruthie and I had dropped. I felt like an idiot. We had definitely overreacted, more victims of our imagination than Val. The tension that had built up all day as I waited to confront Zander had reached its peak, and Val’s silly prank had been the final straw. My face was red with mortification. Our screams had attracted the attention of everyone in earshot (which probably included the whole county). Even teachers peered out of their doorways. But after seeing that we were fine and noticing Val in the midst of the trouble, they concluded that it was just a harmless joke.

As I scrambled up, my eyes skimmed the crowds that were returning to whatever they had been doing before all the excitement. One head stood out among all the rest, wavy chestnut hair curling back and blue eyes searching my face with concern.

Speaking of jerks
, I thought. There stood the real cause of my stress, and I tacked on public humiliation because all the strange things that had been happening to me seemed to be when I was around him—a sure sign of guilt in my mind at that moment. My hostile glare took him by surprise. His eyebrows shot up and he actually took a step back.
Yeah, be afraid
.

Ruthie finally wriggled free and came to my side. She followed my gaze and added her own fierce scowl.

“They’re all jerks,” she muttered. “Come on, Tru. We’re so out of here.” She steered me toward an exit away from Val and Zander.              

Kids jeered and yelled out “Scaredy-cat” or “Help! I’m being attacked by the big bad Val!” And it wouldn’t be total humiliation without Zena and her harpies pitching in their own disdaining remarks.

“Oh my gosh, Brianna! I think she peed her pants!” Zena quipped as we passed them, which caused everyone to stare you-know-where. I grabbed Ruthie’s arm to keep her moving forward when she would have confronted them. Ruthie settled for flipping them a finger behind her back, which gave everyone something else to look at.

We didn’t say anything until we got in the car. Then we sighed long and deeply at the same time.

“So Zander
was
at school,” stated Ruthie. “Must have been hiding from you.”

“But why? His brother made me forget what happened—well, supposedly—so he should have been acting like nothing happened, right?”

“Maybe he just felt guilty. Serves him right, the coward.” She started the car. “Man, I’m so breaking up with Val. That was not cool. So not cool.”

“Well,” I said, “when you stop and think about it, it’s not that big of a deal. And it probably looked really funny to everyone else.” It seemed somewhat harsh to blame Val for our spastic reactions.

“I know, I know,” she said, “I just feel so stupid. I was really scared for a second and, man! I screamed like a little girl!” She laid her head on the steering wheel in defeat. “I thought I was tougher than that, you know?”

“Yeah. I feel stupid, too. But the less we make of it, the faster everyone will forget it, right? If they knew what we’ve been through, they’d be freaking out, too.”

Ruthie turned her head toward me with a smile, but it quickly melted away. She raised her head in surprise, but in seconds covered it up with smooth indifference.

“Uh…don’t jump or anything, but your secret boyfriend is standing right outside your window,” she whispered, while scratching her nose to cover her moving lips. I froze, my back still to the window.

“What? Oh my gosh, what do I say?”

A knock on the window brought me around. Zander stood looking down at me, his head tilted expectantly, wearing a sexy smile. I must have stared too long because he finally made the motions of rolling down my window. I reminded myself that I was mad at him, that he had allowed his brother to mind-whammy me, and that he was pretending to be a student here. He was up to something,
and
most importantly, he knew something about my mother’s death and wasn’t sharing. That final thought brought anger to the front line. I opened the door with a glare.

Ruthie touched my arm and said, “I’ll wait right here, okay?”

“Okay, thanks. This shouldn’t take long.” I stepped out of the car and tried to shrug off my anger.
I should play along
, I thought.

“Uh,” Zander paused, “I just wanted to check on you. That was one heck of a scream back there.”

I rolled my eyes. “Val being stupid, that’s all.” I scanned the parking lot behind him looking for his brother.

“Where were you today?” I asked, trying not to sound accusing, but failing.

He took a sudden interest in my sparkly Converse shoes. “My father found a place to rent, and I took the day off to help move stuff in. I just came by at the end to pick up my homework.”

“Oh, okay.” I pursed my lips, pretty sure he was lying. But man, he was good.

“Speaking of homework,” he continued, “can we still get together to study?”

Still?
I thought. He was fishing to find out what I remembered. I wanted him to squirm.

“What more do we need to go over? You seemed to understand it really well yesterday at my place.” His eyebrows shot up. He obviously didn’t think I would remember that.

“Oh, yeah…well, uh, I just thought the way we left it…” He stopped, giving me an opening to fill in the rest. Nope. I wasn’t having any of that. I wanted to hear how
he
filled it in.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Zander ran a hand through his hair, causing some of it to stick up.

“I was wondering if I could come by again and maybe we could think of a direction for our project?” he asked hopefully.

Perfect
, I thought. Answer a question with another question. This was really putting my weak acting skills to the test. But on the other hand, perhaps I could find out more about what
he
knew, too…

“Okay. How about in an hour? I need to finish some other stuff first.”

He smiled, and out of nowhere a football came flying toward us. I saw it, but Zander didn’t.

I just got out a garbled “Watch—!” before it smacked into his back, knocking him off balance and into me, pushing us up against the car. My head would have smacked against the hood of Ruthie’s mini, but one of Zander’s hands cushioned it with surprising gentleness. In fact, he was wrapped around me as if he was protecting me. I was held tight against his chest, and I felt that breathtaking hum along every inch where we touched. I looked up at him and his mouth was inches away from mine, his dark blue eyes boring into me, like soft pools of water. Just then, drowning seemed like a great way to go.

Then the car engine revved. Ruthie’s way of saying “time to go.” Zander’s eyes narrowed and he stepped away after steadying me.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said softly. “Thanks for the save.” 

He turned around, saying, “No problem. See you in an hour!” And he jogged over to the negligent football. Across the parking lot, a group of guys were laughing and pointing at us. Zander pulled back his arm and threw the football. It soared in a perfect spiral directly into the group of boys, plunging into the midsection of the one laughing the loudest. He went down and Zander took off the other way, where he hopped into his brother’s waiting truck.

I pulled open the car door and got inside.

“What the ham shank are you doing?” she bellowed. “Hello! Kissy face with the enemy is not good. Yes, he’s way hot, but geez! He and his brother erased your memory, girl. Enemy! Not friend!”

I sighed. “Would you be okay with
frenemy
?” I asked with a weary smile. “Looks like I’ve got another study date this afternoon.”