Dead Is So Last Year (11 page)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

On Saturday night,
Ryan was at my house, helping me make cookies. Well, he was helping me eat them, anyway.

"Do you mind if we hang out with Samantha and Sean tonight?" I asked. "I invited them over. I haven't seen much of either of them lately." I was hoping a little quality time together would help Sean and Ryan drop whatever beef they had.

"Sure, that would be great," Ryan said. But I could tell by his expression that something was bothering him. I gave him an inquiring look.

"Things haven't been so great between Sean and me lately, ever since he started hanging out with Wolfgang. He barely even talks to me at practice anymore."

"He's your best friend," I said.

"He
was
my best friend," Ryan replied. "But I'm not sure he still is."

"Of course he is!" I said, truly alarmed now.

"I hope tonight will help," Ryan said. "He acts like he's mad at me."

"About what?"

"That's just it. He won't tell me. Whenever I ask him about it, he just says nothing is wrong."

"Samantha says he hasn't been acting like himself to her, either. Do you know what's going on with him? He's as moody as you were when you were going through your ... change."

"But Sean's not a Were," Ryan pointed out reasonably.

"Not that we know of," I muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"It's just that Nicholas mentioned that werewolves could be made," I said.

Ryan looked horrified. "Yes, but no one in their right mind would do something like that."

"Wolfie might," I said. "Maybe Sean's just going along with it."

"Why?" Ryan sounded skeptical. "That doesn't sound like Sean at all. He's a good guy."

I shrugged. I didn't know, but I intended to find out.

About an hour later, Sam and Sean were on my doorstep. I invited them in and gave Sam a big hug. "I feel like I haven't seen you all summer," I said.

"I know,"she said. "But we've both been busy with our new jobs and the guys have been busy with football."

"How is football going?" I asked Sean casually.

"Okay," Sean muttered. I noticed that he didn't make eye contact with Ryan. Something was definitely wrong. I looked at Sam, but she just shrugged.

I changed the subject." Are you guys hungry? I made cookies."

Sean looked at his hand. "I already ate."

Samantha elbowed him sharply. "I mean, thank you, but I've already eaten," Sean said.

"How about a game of Scrabble?" Ryan suggested.

I winced. Sean was notoriously bad at spelling, but to my surprise, he brightened. "That's a good idea."

We sat on the rug in the living room and set up the game. But the evening deteriorated quickly when the first word Sean spelled out was
liar.
He glared at Ryan as the points were tallied, but Ryan was doing his best to ignore it.

Sean's next word was either
furry
or
fury,
but I didn't have a chance to verify it before Ryan knocked the tiles off the board.

"What's your problem?" he said to Sean. The tendons in his neck stood out. "You've been acting like an ass all summer."

"You're the one with the problem," Sean replied. "You wanna take this outside?"

Ryan nodded. "If that's what you want. Are you going to get your little pal Wolfie to help you?" he said mockingly.

"At least Wolfie is honest," Sean shot back.

"Guys," Sam said. "Knock it off. You're friends."

"That's what I thought," Sean said. "I thought we were best friends, but evidently, we're not. Best friends tell each other everything."

"What haven't I told you?" Ryan demanded.

Sean stared at him and got to his feet. "Did it slip your mind that you turn furry and howl at the moon once a month? A little information you might have shared with your
best friend.
" With that, he turned and left the house.

There was silence in the room for a minute, then Ryan said, "I can't believe I didn't tell him."

"Well, someone did," Samantha said. "Wolfgang."

Frankly, I couldn't believe it, either, but now was not the time to tell my boyfriend that. "Go after him," I urged. "Just explain it."

"Good idea," Ryan said. "At least I can try."

After they both were gone, Samantha and I looked at each other for a minute.

"Boys," she said, after the long silence. "They're so moody." And then shrugged, and grabbed a cookie.

We spent an hour playing Scrabble, but neither of the guys came back. Finally, Samantha and I called it a night.

"Do you think they made up?" she said before she left.

"They had to have," I said. "They're best friends, aren't they?"

"I don't know," she said. "They were both really angry, and Sean does some stupid things when he's mad."

It wasn't long before we found out exactly how stupid Sean could be.

CHAPTER TWENTY

For the big night
of our "family" dinner with Dad, my sisters and I had decided on barbecued chicken, homemade potato salad, and watermelon, with chocolate cake for dessert. Grandma insisted on giving us money for groceries, so Poppy and I headed to the grocery store to buy the ingredients.

We were in the meat section when she nudged me. "Isn't that Wolfgang Paxton?" she said in a whisper. "What is he doing? Harassing the butcher?"

I laughed, but sobered quickly. I wouldn't put it past him.

He was standing at the meat counter, where the butcher handed him several large items wrapped in white paper. His cart was piled high.

"Evidently, buying enough raw meat to feed an army," I replied.

There was quite a line, so Poppy and I patiently waited our turn. Wolfgang was still loading up his cart when I noticed Sean approaching him.

Poppy noticed, too. "I've never seen Sean look so angry," she said.

He and Wolfie had engaged in a low-voiced conversation, and it was clear from the expressions on their faces and their body language that they were arguing. I strained to hear, but it was too noisy in the store and they were speaking much too quietly.

Wolfgang openly smirked at Sean and then gave him a little shove. It took some nerve to get physical with Sean, who was a big guy. Of course, Wolfgang was a werewolf, which gave him an advantage, but my money was still on Sean.

The guy was completely out of control.

I was startled when Sean jabbed his finger into Wolfie's chest for emphasis and then strode away. Wolfgang didn't even flinch, but I saw him gazing after Sean with a look of hatred. He looked up and caught me staring. His lip curled back into a nasty smile and I looked away. When I looked up again, he was gone.

I gave the butcher our order, then Poppy and I went to the next aisle to finish the shopping, but my mind was busy. I looked down and realized that I'd managed to float a couple of bars of chocolate into the cart without even realizing.

I looked up at Poppy. "Hey, did you pick those up?"

She giggled. "No, you did. And I think you almost gave Mr. Hanson a heart attack when he saw those chocolates float by."

"Oops, I'd better pay better attention," I said. I didn't want everyone in Nightshade to know I had telekinetic powers.

What were Wolfgang and Sean talking about? It had looked like they were arguing. Was Sean somehow involved in the rogue pack?

I had put the questions out of my mind by the time Poppy and I got home. We were already behind schedule, so I put the chicken in marinade and started the chocolate cake.

Rose and Poppy decided to hang out in the backyard with me while I cooked the chicken. I didn't have much experience using our barbecue, but I'd learned a lot from Slim, so I had confidence that I wouldn't burn the chicken.

I managed to get dinner ready in time. Despite the fact that our DoppelDad was a no-show, I was pleased to see that Grandma was enjoying herself. She had been glum ever since he had left the house. I didn't want to think about how she was going to react when she found out that he wasn't her son.

Grandma said, "Daisy, that was delicious. Thank you."

Everyone commented on how good the potato salad was and I glowed with pride.

"Slim gave me the recipe," I admitted. "But he said I can't reveal the secret ingredient."

Rose laughed. "As long as it's not magical, I don't care. Just keep making it!"

It was a close, humid night, and although it was getting dark by the time we'd finished our meal, no one felt like going inside yet. Poppy and Rose and I took the dirty plates into the kitchen and then I sliced up the chocolate cake and brought it back outside on a tray.

"I forgot the pitcher of milk," I said.

"Sit down," Rose commanded. "I'll get it."

I took a seat in my favorite Adirondack chair and leaned back contentedly. It felt like we were in for a summer storm, but there was a slight breeze blowing.

Rose appeared with the pitcher of cold milk. A second later, I heard a growl and a large animal bounded out of the shrubbery and went flying toward her. She screamed but kept a death grip on the pitcher.

It was a shaggy gray wolf. His fangs were bared and he moved so quickly, I could barely breathe, let alone think. Poppy saved the day. With a quick look, she sent the glass pitcher flying. It hit the wolf squarely on the head and knocked it out. Milk ran down its motionless face.

We were frozen in shock for a few minutes.

"Why the sudden interest from the werewolf community?" I wondered aloud when I finally found my voice again.

Poppy asked, "Is it dead?"

"I don't think so," Rose said. "Just unconscious."

"Go get some rope from the garage. And hurry," Grandma said to Poppy.

"Rose, sit down," I said. "You look like you're going to faint." She did as I told her. Her face was as white as the milk.

Poppy came back with the rope. The animal hadn't stirred, but I was still surprised when Grandma grabbed the rope.

"Be careful!" I said.

"Don't worry," she said. "When I'm done, this wolf won't be able to move. Poppy, call Nicholas and tell him to come over. We have a problem."

A big hairy problem.

While Poppy dialed Nicholas, I stared up at the sky. There was no sign of a full moon, which convinced me that this was a young wolf, maybe even one of the pack we'd seen before. But why did they keep coming back to our house?

"Obviously, someone has it out for the Giordano family." I hadn't realized that I said it aloud, until Poppy gave me a dirty look.

I clapped a hand over my mouth. We had tried to protect Grandma from as much of Nightshade's weirdness as possible, but by the calm, efficient way she was trussing up the werewolf, our protective behavior might not have been necessary. She evidently wasn't fazed by much, including a visit from someone from the supernatural community.

Nicholas must have broken a few traffic laws, because we barely had the wolf tied up before he arrived.

"Rose, are you okay?" he said. She stood up shakily and he took her into his arms.

"I'm fine. Poppy saved me with a pitcher of milk. Good thing Daisy doesn't like plastic," she joked weakly.

Nicholas looked over at the werewolf. Grandma had him tied up as neatly as she wrapped our Christmas presents.

"What should we do with him?" Rose said.

"I'll take him to the garage," Nicholas said. "I have a feeling that the wolf will be shifting back to its human form soon and then we'll know who is behind this bad behavior."

Nicholas grabbed the werewolf and lifted it easily. His super strength came in handy.

It occurred to me that that kind of strength could come in handy for football, and I wondered again if this Were was someone on the team.

The rest of us trooped to the garage after Nicholas, although I noticed Poppy managed to scoop up a slice of chocolate cake before she exited.

Nicholas found a couple of old towels and draped them over the creature for modesty's sake. I wasn't sure whose modesty he was trying to protect, ours or the wolf's, but either way, when the creature reregained its human form, now it wouldn't do so naked.

About an hour later, the transformation began. I thought I'd see Wolfgang Paxton. But I was as surprised as everyone else when I saw who it was.

"Sean?" I said.

Wait until Ryan heard about this.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

"Sean?" I said again.
I was having trouble processing the information.

We untied him and he sat up and put a hand to his head, wincing. I caught him looking down, and noted the relief on his face when he realized he was covered by a blanket.

"Where am I?" he said.

"At our house," Poppy said.

He looked blank.

Poppy continued, "But the real question is, why are you here?"

Nicholas grabbed his cell phone and started to dial. "I have to call my father. The council needs to know there's a new werewolf in town."

"The council?" Sean paled. "What will they do to me? I wasn't trying to hurt anyone ... I just smelled the meat on the barbecue and lost control."

"Then why did you try to attack Rose?" Nicholas replied. "The council frowns on that kind of behavior."

Rose put her hand on Nicholas's arm. "Let's hear what he has to say first."

Nicholas said, "Okay, start talking."

Sean still looked shaken, but he'd lost some of his bravado.

He pulled himself together.

"I think it was the experiments."

"What kind of experiments?" Poppy asked. He kept mute.

"Sean, it's important that you tell us the truth. We might be able to help you."

He wouldn't meet my eyes, but at least he started talking. "Experimenting with 'roids."

"Steroids?" Rose shot me a horrified look.

Sean nodded gravely.

"Are you a complete idiot?" Poppy blurted. "That stuff is dangerous."

He coughed and a little ball of hair, probably from the pelt of a rabbit, came out of his mouth and landed on the floor. He stared at it, appalled at his social gaffe.

"I'll get you a glass of water, and some ice for your head," Grandma said as she left the garage.

She hurried back a few minutes later with an ice pack and a drink for our guest. As she handed it to him, she asked quickly, "Did I miss anything?"

I shook my head. Sean had been mute, staring at the rabbit fur on the floor the whole time she was gone.

Now he emptied the glass in one gulp, then sighed. "Thank you. At first I just used regular steroids. But it wasn't working. I wasn't big enough to..."

"Compete with the Weres on the football team," I guessed. "Go on," I prompted him.

"But pretty soon, it wasn't just traditional steroids," he continued. "It was something much worse."

"Worse? How much worse?" Poppy said.

"I started using what he called a hairball. A hairball is a mixture of traditional steroids and..."

"And what?" Nicholas prompted him again.

"Were blood," Sean replied. He hung his head.

Rose gasped. "That's terrible. Why did you do it?"

"I just wanted to see what it was like. If my best friend could be a werewolf, why couldn't I? But pretty soon I was shifting almost every night, not just when the moon was full."

"Where'd you get the hairballs?" I asked.

Sean shook his head. "I can't say."

But I'd already guessed. "Wolfie has been a very naughty boy," I said.

Nicholas picked up his phone. "Definitely council business," he said. "I'll call Dad. He needs to know about this."

"Excuse us for a moment," Poppy said to Sean. He simply nodded and repositioned the ice pack that was against his head. The rest of us followed her to a spot in the garage, out of his earshot.

"What are they going to do with Wolfgang?" I asked Rose.

"I don't care. You heard what he said. That creep is injecting people to turn them into werewolves. Sean's just a victim." Sean was our next-door neighbor, so she had watched him grow up.I knew she had a soft spot for him. But the truth is, he wasn't just a victim. He'd made the decision to go along with Wolfgang, and the damage might be permanent.

Poppy groaned. "I just can't believe Sean would do steroids. Or hairballs. Whatever."

Nicholas finished his conversation with his father and hung up. "Dad and Chief Mendez are going to the Paxtons' in a few minutes. I'll take Sean there to meet them."

"I've got to tell Samantha," I said.

"What can we do to help?" Rose asked.

"Hope that the council is able to find a cure for this. I don't think Sean knew what he was getting into. But I do know there's a whole pack of teen werewolves running around, and after what we learned tonight, I'm pretty sure they are on the football team."

"Let's go inside before any more surprise visitors show up," Grandma said. "And I'll get that poor boy some of your father's clothes."

She left the garage as I pondered the fact that Mom still had some of Dad's stuff. We'd helped her bag up a bunch of it to donate it. I had thought that that meant she was resolved he wasn't coming back. But maybe she had just done it to appease us. I wondered where his clothes had ended up. A glimmer of a memory teased the edge of my mind, but I couldn't grasp it. I'd seen piles of clothing lately, and it wasn't just in Poppy's room. The memory eluded me.

Nicholas extended a hand and helped Sean to his feet, none too gently. He grabbed the blanket as it started to slip, then blushed profusely.

Poppy and I made a quick exit from the garage before we embarrassed the guy any further.

We congregated in the living room to wait for Grandma to come back with something for Sean to wear. He made sure he had a firm grip on the blanket when he joined us.

She returned just as the silence was moving from uncomfortable to completely awkward. Handing Sean a stack of men's clothing, she said, "Nicholas, please show our guest where he can change," which meant Nicholas should guard the bathroom door while Sean got dressed. Although Sean's story made a horrible kind of sense, it was not completely clear that the attack was unintentional.

Wolfgang Paxton was a bad combination of arrogance and inexperience. I could picture him creating new werewolves just for the malicious pleasure of it. But I couldn't figure out why a decent guy like Sean would go along with it.

Were they that desperate to win a championship?

I wanted privacy to give Ryan the heads-up on Sean's involvement.

When I called him and told him the story, as briefly as possible, Ryan sounded grim. "The football team? Are you sure?"

"Not certain about all, but at least some of them. Probably freshman string," I said, guessing that those boys would be the most easily influenced by Wolfgang.

"And..." I hesitated. It was going to be hard for Ryan to hear that Sean was involved, but Ryan knew he had been hanging around Wolfie a lot.

"And Sean," Ryan finished for me. "I'll be right over."

When I answered the door a little later, I was expecting only Ryan, but next to him stood a very irritated Samantha Devereaux. "Er, hi, everyone. Come on in."

I held the door open and they followed me to the living room.

Sean sat on the loveseat. There was room next to him, but Sam very pointedly chose a seat far away from her boyfriend.

Ryan sat next to me on the ottoman. "Did I miss anything?"

Sean sat in silence, but Samantha glared at him.

He was in for it now. Samantha was fuming, I could tell.

Sean cleared his throat. Sam gave him a look and he started talking. "I've been hanging around Wolfgang."

"Everyone knows that," Sam said impatiently. "Get to the point."

Pretty soon, the whole sorry story came out.

"He said the hairballs would improve my game," Sean said. "I told myself I would only try it once, but then I saw a difference—I got stronger and faster, quick. I knew it was wrong. Good thing I stopped. Some of the guys are having ... problems. Worse than me, if you can believe it."

"Sean!" Sam snapped. "I can't believe you were dumb enough to fall for that."

He hung his head in shame and mumbled some apologies.

"I'm going to kill him," Samantha said.

"Killing a werewolf isn't easy," I joked weakly. "You'd better stock up on silver bullets."

She flinched.

"I'm sorry," I said. "That was insensitive."

"Thanks, Daisy," Sam said. "But even if Sean only did it
once,
that's bad enough."

"I didn't let Wolfgang inject me anymore," Sean said, "at least not after I saw what it did to me."

"What did it do?" Poppy said.

"At first, it seemed like some kind of miracle," Sean admitted. "These skinny little freshmen bulked up almost overnight. Pretty soon they were lifting the same amount as me." He sounded aggrieved. "I was tempted to keep on using it, believe me. But then we started seeing the side effects."

"What side effects?" Poppy said.

"At first, it was just hair. Lots of hair," Sean said. "But then they started to change, and not just once in a while." He turned to Nicholas and asked with a pleading note in his voice, "Is it reversible?"

Nicholas said, "Possibly." He looked at Ryan. "There's a doctor in town who specializes in Were issues." He was talking about the doctor Rose had taken him to last spring when Ryan had abruptly changed and challenged Nicholas. In the heat of the moment, Nicholas had been injured.

Sean shuddered. "I hope they can reverse it. After we started changing, some of the guys wanted to stop. But Wolfgang convinced us that this was the only way we were going to take the championship." He looked at Ryan when he said it.

Ryan shuddered. "I don't want to win like this," he said. "But why did he pick you? Why didn't you tell me?"

Ryan took my hand as we all listened to the rest of Sean's story.

"I was ... upset that you hadn't told me you were a werewolf," Sean admitted to Ryan. "Wolfie told me what was going on with you. I thought I might learn something about werewolves by hanging around with him and his crew. I thought it might help me understand what you were going through. But I got in way over my head."

"I'm sorry, Sean," Ryan said. "I meant to tell you, but—"

"It's all good," Sean said quickly. "Friends again?" He extended his hand and Ryan shook it vigorously.

"Friends."

The impromptu meeting finally broke up.

Nicholas got to his feet." I've got to go. I have to make a stop at the Paxton residence. There's a certain wolf cub who needs schooling. And we have to see what we can do for this idiot." He grabbed Sean by the collar and steered him toward the door.

Samantha followed them out. Through our open windows, I could hear her scolding Sean as they walked to Nicholas's car. He wasn't getting off easy on this one.

I kissed Ryan goodbye. After the house emptied out, I headed for bed, but I couldn't sleep. I wondered if the guys on the team would be okay or if the injections would have permanent side effects. I hoped that Wolfgang Paxton was thoroughly ashamed of himself. If he wasn't now, he would be by the time the Nightshade City Council was through with him.