The Werewolf Whisperer (The Werewolf Whisperer Series Book 1) (44 page)

Chapter
33

OMEGA: they r coming ur way make sure she
's not harmed

ORACLE: The other 2?

OMEGA: disposable

ORACLE: When will u b here?

OMEGA: soon

"Thanks,
Hanna." Lucy slid her new smartphone onto El Gallo's dash and put both
hands back on the wheel.

"Good
news, Molly's isn't filing charges. Hanna said she's trying to straighten
things out with the local PD," Lucy said and looked over to Xochitl who
slumped in the middle of the bench seat, Miguel's
Luchadores
cap pulled
down over her face. Kai snored loudly, his face pressed up against the
passenger window, his warm breath fogging up the glass.

"Hey
Xochi," Lucy teased. "You and Lefty were up drinking pretty late last
night. Any confessions to make?"

"Yuck!
It's Lefty." Xochitl made a sound like a cat coughing up a fur ball. She
groaned. "Bad things happen to people who drink tequila. Last time this..."
Xochitl said with difficulty and lifted her left arm, reconsidered, then lifted
her right arm instead and pointed to the
La Güera
tattoo. "This
time..." She searched. "Lefty gave me something...Something he
shouldn't have."

Lucy
whooped and shook with suppressed laughter. Her eyes watered with the effort. "Digging
yourself deeper," Lucy sang out.

"¡Cállate!"
Xochi said and air-paddled both hands in Lucy's direction.

Xochitl
settled back into her slumped sleeping position, apparently unable to get
comfortable. She grumbled about needing coffee and mushed her face up against
Kai's shoulder, desperate to hide from the sunrays beaming into the car.

Kai,
who'd slept through the entire conversation, woke up, yawned wide and
vigorously bounced up and down in his seat.

"Wake
up, Xochitl! We gotta figure this out." Lucy swatted at Xochitl's
shoulder. "We have to steer clear of Empyrean. Only use cash," Lucy
said, laying out their options again. "Any major cities are off limits. L.A.,
San Diego, San Francisco. Anywhere we've been recently. The law has a raging
hard-on for us."

Lucy
continued, "Hanna said her friends in Tolinka Hills are cool with us
staying until everything blows over."

"And
if it doesn't blow over?" Xochitl made a production of sitting up and
rummaging through her bag for aspirin.

"We'll
burn that bridge when we get to it." Lucy reached one hand over the seat
and grabbed a sealed water bottle from a grocery bag balancing precariously on
the backseat.

Xochitl
snatched the bottle from her, popped two aspirin and took a deep gulp of water.

A
few moments passed in silent contemplation, allowing Lucy the chance to notice
the abundance of orange poppies lining the road on both sides. Spring was
making its presence known, and Lucy loved California springs almost as much as
California summers. The weather and the phenomenal landscape almost erased
their problems for a moment.

Almost.

"Are
we there yet?" Xochitl whined, breaking Lucy's reverie. Xochitl stuffed
the water bottle in the hanging cup holder and started digging through her bag
again, flipping her hair brush, some lip gloss and a switchblade on the seat
next to her. Kai picked the items up one at a time, studying them closely until
Xochitl noticed and slapped his hands away from her things.

"We
just passed Angels Camp. Can't be much longer now," Lucy said and turned
on the car radio. Xochitl played with the volume control.

"And
now the KNUZ 88.3 FM news..." The radio announcer's words fell and rose in
volume as Xochitl turned the knob back and forth. "It's been two days
since the Werebeast incident at Empyrean High School and still no leads on the
teenage Were who sent a local teacher to the hospital." The words, though
delivered in a pleasant announcer's timbre, hit Lucy in the gut like a gunshot.
Xochitl flinched her hand away from the radio control as if it had burned her.

"Teacher?
Hospital?" Lucy snapped her head and looked at Kai.

"The
young assailant, known to travel in the company of The Werewolf Whisperer, went
on to maul two teenagers at a local diner." The announcer came up against
a hard break. "After we come back, we will be speaking to Revered Dr.
David Barns, Co-Founder of the Anti-Werebeast Commission. Please stay tuned for
these important messages."

"Kai,
what teacher?" Lucy pressed.

"Spill,
Hound Chow!" Xochitl said and shoved the boy's shoulder to get his
attention.

Last
night, they'd seen the news footage of Kai running from Empyrean High School,
but the boy hadn't volunteered any information about attacking a teacher.

Kai
turned his face to look at the passing trees, ignoring Xochitl's prodding. "No
English," he pronounced each word perfectly and without an accent.

"Hound
Chow. Hound Chow," the radio commercial sang. "It's all your Hound—"

"Turn
it off." Xochitl gave up on Kai and fumbled with her sunglasses.

"Did
you hear—" Lucy fumed, but Xochitl cut her off.

"Coffee.
Not until after coffee. I want coffee. We can talk about how screwed we are,
after coffee." Xochitl leaned over Kai and rolled down the window.

The
crisp mountain air flowed through the car. "This Tolinka Hills place
another one of your backwoods shit kickin' towns?" Xochitl asked and
pulled her jacket closed.

"Old
mining town, I think. Never been there, but they'll have coffee." Lucy
snapped her fingers in the direction of Kai, who'd stuck his head out the
window up to his shoulders.

"Is
his tongue lolling out?" She laughed despite herself. "I can't stand
it. Pull him back in and roll up the window, Xoch."

"I
need air," Xochitl said, fishing a pack of gum out of the glove box.

"Just
roll it up halfway. I don't want him jumping out." Lucy clicked her tongue
to get Kai's attention.

Xochitl
glanced at the speedometer. "We're going sixty-five miles an hour. He's
not gonna jump out. He's not an idiot," Xochitl said and crammed a green
stick of gum into her mouth. She flicked the crumpled up foil at Lucy's ear.

Without
warning, Kai launched himself out of the window of the speeding car, rolled to
his feet on the grass and darted into the woods.

Lucy
jammed on the brakes so hard, she made the tires squeal and El Gallo spin one
hundred and eighty degrees. The smell of burning rubber hit her
instantaneously, and she watched as little clouds wafted around them.

"¡Jódame!"
Xochitl yelled, suddenly wide-awake. "¿Estás loca?"

Lucy,
already out of the car, called out. "Kai! Kai! Come back Kai!" Panic
took her breath.

Did
Kai bolt because he thinks I'm mad at him over the teacher? What if he hurt
himself?

Lucy
ran both hands through her hair and stood still, looking at the dense sequoia
forest.

Xochitl
slid over to the driver's side, muttering to herself in Spanish, and pulled the
car over to the shoulder.

"Yo!
You just lost your driving privileges, chica," Xochitl said.

"But
Kai—" Lucy shouted back.

"Kai's
made outta rubber. He's fine." Xochitl gave Lucy a wry smile and looked
around.

"Hey,
Luce. Sign there says Tolinka Hills is the next exit," Xochitl said and
pointed ahead. "Maybe our boy is taking a shortcut."

"After
all we've been through, he runs off just like that," Lucy said, feeling
dismayed.

"Yeah,
hell. If you love someone, let him go and all that shit. Probably just saw a
rabbit." Xochitl hit the blinker and paused with uncharacteristic caution
before pulling the car back onto the empty road.

Maybe she wants to coddle El Gallo a
little to make up for my rough handling. Maybe the hangover still has her a
little wobbly.

"Should
you be driving?" Lucy started to cross back to the driver's side.

"Get
in!" Xochitl shouted. "It's shotgun for you from now on!" She
shook her blond mane vigorously, seemingly back to her usual self with no trace
of tequila aftereffects. "We'll find him later. I can track him with my
GPS app."

"You
put a tracker on Kai?" Lucy snapped her seatbelt in place, uncertain
Xochitl wasn't planning revenge for the half doughnut.

"Of
course not." Xochitl considered for a moment and then smirked, all at
once in a better mood. "Last night is still a bit fuzzy, but I remember
Lefty giving me a phone with a tracker on it." She smacked her forehead. "That's
what he gave me. He said it's all government issue. Super secret spy shit...And
I gave it to Kai. Because no teenage boy should be without a phone...with a
tracker." Xochitl adjusted the mirrors. "So, make of that what you
will."

"Aren't you the clever girl,"
Lucy said, impressed and very relieved. "I'll get you a gallon of coffee
when we get to Tolinka Hills."

The tiny town of
Tolinka Hills looked like a relic from the later days of the California Gold
Rush. The town sign boasted
Population 450
, but looking at the silent
street, Lucy was sure that number had dwindled.

The
two-lane Main Street took them past less than a dozen one-story frontier-style
buildings and a few meticulously restored Victorians. Set back from the raised
sidewalk, the storefronts seemed to be in various states of disrepair. Not one
door stood open.

The
Old Mercantile, easily the largest single building, advertised
Coyote
Festival Sale
on a colorful banner attached to the overhang.

"Wonder
what a coyote festival looks like," Xochitl pondered out loud.

They
drove past several antique stores; all displayed similar mining paraphernalia
replicas and kitschy pseudo Victorian knickknacks. The ubiquitous vintage
clothing store flaunted a fussy display complete with various dress forms
draped in crinoline ball gowns and outfitted in fancy period menswear.

"Think
I might need that powder blue parasol," Lucy said, trying to lighten her
increasingly black mood. "Perchance I shall swoon onto one of those
daaaarling wooden benches." She pointed ahead to the chainsaw carved
monstrosities situated on either side of the entrance of the old-fashioned
candy store.

"Fiddle-dee-dee!"
Xochitl affected her best Scarlett. "Personally, I'd like some of that
saltwater taffy those cabrones are falsely advertising on their pinche froufrou
sign." She stretched her neck and looked at both sides of the street.

"Why
isn't anyone open?" Xochitl whined. "Need coffee. If I don't get
coffee soon the hangover headache is gonna slide right into the caffeine
withdrawal headache."

Xochitl
pulled alongside a promising restaurant. The tall building looked well cared
for with a friendly western façade and pretty flowers in boxes at the second
story windows. Xochitl took one of the many empty parking spots in front.

"The
Old Firehouse," Xochitl read the sign. "Looks like they remodeled the
real thing. Cute."

Lucy
nodded. "Flowers upstairs are fake though," she said. "I can see
a price tag attached to one of the stems."

"Spoil
sport." Xochitl climbed out of the car, stretching her arms in the air. "As
long as they have coffee and make waffles, I don't care."

Lucy
stared at the other side of the street. All the shops were closed as far as she
could see. A prominent whitewashed building perched on a little rise across the
street.

"Hmmmm."
Lucy pointed to the words painted in an arch over the large building's second
story balcony.

"The
Sodality of Beneficence." She raised an eyebrow. "These old towns
have weird history sometimes."

"That's
probably just some Old West lodge." Xochitl glanced at the shuttered
windows. "Probably long gone."

Lucy
looked up and down the road. A few cars sat parked along Main Street. She
spotted thick layers of dust on the closest ones.

More
disquieting was the fact that they had yet to see one person in the town. No
one walked the streets, strolled on the sidewalk or jostled in and out of
stores.

"This
doesn't look good," Lucy said, but Xochitl walked right up to the "Old
Firehouse" and pulled on the front door. It refused to budge.

"Closed?
It's closed," she said, incredulous. "You said they'd have coffee!"
She knocked against the glass.

"Looks
like they haven't even got a they," Lucy said.

Suddenly
Kai appeared at the end of the empty street. He yipped and ran toward Lucy.

"We
didn't even miss you!" Xochitl shouted to the boy.

"Come
on Kai. Let's go. Come here," Lucy called and patted the front of her
thighs.

Kai
shot toward her like a rocket, three yapping Ferals in hot pursuit.

"¡Híjole!"
Lucy and Xochitl said in unison.

Kai
turned at the Trading Post and flew out of sight. The Ferals spread out and
chased after him without taking notice of Lucy and Xochitl.