KKKRRRRRKKKKK. The splinters of the blade snapped into the roof of her mouth and her forked tongue. She spit the bloody pieces out onto the pavement. Then she let loose with a scream, filling the garage with a primal roar. Her blood—the blood of the Ancient Furnace—was boiling.
“How dare you!” she roared, her original scream still echoing through the parking ramp. “HOW DARE YOU!”
His face full of fear, shock, and dismay, Eddie fell to his knees and bowed his head.
The boil inside was nearly too much. She felt the fire in her throat before she caught a glimpse of his down-turned face: the brown eyes that had once cried for her when she fell off her bike as a little girl, the soft cheeks that had cushioned his smile when he told her about the family’s latest trip to Europe, the sharp nose she had punched once when they were seven and got into an argument about comic books.
He was wrong then, and he’s wrong now.
The random thought gave her time. With a small hiss, she calmed herself down.
“Eddie.”
He did not look up. His voice was toneless. “What.”
“Eddie, that hurt.”
“Good.”
“I know you don’t mean that.”
Raising his head, he looked at her with overflowing despair. “You don’t know that. You don’t know me.”
“Yes, I do. You’re my friend.”
“Since when?”
“Since forever.”
“No, I’m not. I’m your enemy.”
“Eddie, if you were my enemy, you’d be dead by now.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He picked up the hilt of the Blacktooth blade, which now had nothing more than a staunch three-inch fragment jutting out. “My father will kill me when he sees this.” The corner of his mouth twitched. “You had to destroy the family heirloom?”
Jennifer couldn’t help herself. She chuckled. “You had to try to stab me with it three times?”
His smile turned more genuine. “You and I both know you were never really in danger. You were always the strong one. I was always weak.”
“That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is. I’m sorry, Jennifer.”
She morphed back into a girl. “Stand up, Eddie.”
“What?”
“Stand up.”
“Why?”
“Because you need to brush yourself off and get your dignity back. Because you’re more handsome when you stand up straight. Because you’re kneeling in my blood and it’s gross. Do you need another reason?”
He stood.
Just in time for Skip to knock him back down.
“Skip!” She hadn’t seen or heard him coming.
“I told you to stay away from her!”
Skip landed a hail of punches to Eddie’s midsection, head, and kidneys before Jennifer could finally pull him off. Her mind was whirling with emotions—relief that Skip seemed alive and well, irritation that he had chosen this worst of all moments to reappear, surprise that he wasn’t in spider form under the crescent moon, and concern for Eddie’s health since the other boy was limp and not fighting back at all.
“Skip, cut it out! You’re hurting him!”
He wriggled out of her grasp and began kicking Eddie’s torso. “That’s the idea.”
“Skip! Eddie’s sorry, and I can handle this myself!”
“Yeah, whatever.” Skip’s eyes sparkled with a mixture of rage and glee. He gave his adversary one last kick to the chin as Jennifer pushed him back. Eddie flipped over, landed on the pavement with a sickening crunch, and did not move.
“Knock it off, you creep! You’ll kill him!”
Skip actually smiled. “Creep. That’s a good one, Jennifer. Creep. Yeah, I’m a creep. So are you. We creep around in the dark, monsters like you and me, hiding from bullies like this sick bastard.” He pointed at Eddie, who was plainly breathing but doing little else. “My father was a bully, Jennifer. I know one when I see one. Do you want to protect a bully? Do you want to see what happens when you do?”
“Skip, hurting him isn’t going to make you feel any better. We’ve got to focus on Evangelos! Eddie says he’s around here somewhere.”
His reaction took her by surprise. He began to laugh.
The patience drained from her. “Skip. Why are you laughing?”
He wiped his chin. “No reason, I guess. Hey, look! We finally made it to the Mall of America. Just like I promised.”
They stood there looking at each other quietly, and then Jennifer’s skin began to crawl. She had felt this feeling before with this boy. “Skip, you’ve been holding back something. You haven’t told me the whole truth.”
“Well, true,” he said with a sneer. “But then, you and your family have been holding back, too, haven’t you? I mean, about you and your mom being beaststalkers and all.”
“Skip, this is a bad time—”
“This is a great time,” he corrected her. “Because I’ve been waiting for weeks for you to own up to it. Honestly, Jennifer, how stupid do you think I am?”
She sighed in exasperation, casting her gaze about for signs of Evangelos. “What, you want a numeric rating?”
“I figured out what you were even before I saw your mom fighting.”
“So you were there when she fought him, when…she got hurt.”
“Of course I was. Did you think I was running away from Evangelos? I was running away from her.”
Her skin went cold. “Did she try to hurt you? Or did you try to hurt her?”
His angry expression faltered for the briefest of moments. “No, and no. But once I changed I knew I had to leave. Evangelos showed up, which gave me the chance. She had mentioned the tunnel to me as a possible escape route, so I used it.”
“You said you’d stay there with her.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “I said that.”
“So you abandoned her. You lied.”
He stomped impatiently. “What, hasn’t anyone lied to you before, Jennifer?”
“Come to think of it, yes. You have.”
“Yeah, I lied about my father last year. Just like you, right? Once I knew your mom was a beaststalker, it didn’t take much for me to figure out who had saved you and your dad in the sewers while I was unconscious. Of course, that means your mom killed my dad. A truth your family’s been trying pretty hard to keep from me.”
“We always planned on telling you someday, Skip…” Even now, the words sounded hollow in her own ears.
He rolled his eyes. “Spare me.”
“We needed to track down Evangelos! He’s been attacking my family! Hello, priorities? We needed your help!”
“And you could’ve had my help, if you had bothered to be honest with me. As it stands, I learned I can’t trust you. So now you’ll have to learn the truth on your own.”
She stared at him. “What do you know about Evangelos that you haven’t told us?”
He leaned against the rusted fender of a beat-up station wagon and ignored her question. “Do you mind if I ask you something?”
Fixing her jaw, she glared at him. “Shoot.”
He pointed at the Moon of Falling Leaves necklace she was wearing. “Did I ever mean anything to you or were you always just using me to solve your own stupid little problems?”
She fingered the wooden emblem of the necklace. “I can’t believe you asked me that.”
“Believe it. And answer it.”
“Skip, you’re pathetic. If you think our relationship was part of a family conspiracy, you’re hopeless. And you’ll be your father’s son forever. Think what you want—I’ve got to help Eddie.”
She tried to walk past him to get to where Eddie lay, but he sidestepped to block her path.
“Skip, I just spanked one bad boy. Don’t make me do it to you, too.”
The corners of his mouth curled up. “I’m not a boy anymore, Ms. Ancient Furnace. I heard you calling my aunt. You know I’ve had my first change.”
“Sure, you had your first change. Big deal. Go home and wait for your big-boy underpants to come in the mail.”
“And did you happen to notice what phase of the moon it is right now?”
A short glance beyond the cement fixtures of the parking garage reminded Jennifer of the crescent moon slipping through the wintry clouds. “Yeah, you should still be changed. So what, you’re like me?”
“Maybe a bit better.”
The sigh escaped her before she thought of how it might sound. “Skip, I don’t care. This is so juvenile! Susan’s right—boys are so sad! If Evangelos is coming, we should get Eddie someplace safe. Either help me or get out of my way.”
Again she tried to get to Eddie, and again he blocked her path. “I’m not sure I want to help you.”
She stared at him.
He stared back.
“Skip. Why are you here?”
He shrugged. “I haven’t decided. I’m not as cold as you, Jennifer. I’m not ready to kill Evangelos.”
“Well, geez, I don’t want to kill him either.” Even as she said the words, she wondered if they were true. They ought to be true. But what about what he did to Mom? And Grandpa? “He may not leave us with a choice. You’ve seen what he can do.”
“Yes, your family seems to lose a lot of sleep over what Evangelos has done to others. But what about what your family has done to Evangelos?”
She blinked. He was working himself into a fury again, and for what? “What’s your point?”
“I know what it’s like to feel abandoned by parents. My mother was kind but distant. All she focused on was learning the rituals she needed to find Evangelos, to reopen the portal. I lost her to that obsession. After she was gone, my father gave me no time to grieve. He was all about his schemes and plans for you, and how I could help him. And then just like that, he was gone, too.”
“None of that’s your fault.”
“I know! My point is that my parents cared about everything except me. I was never first on their list. I wasn’t a priority.”
“Well, I’m sorry! But what does this have to do with us and Evangelos?”
“It’s simple, Jennifer. You’re the child Jonathan Scales wanted to raise. Weren’t you? Just like Evangelos was the child my mother wanted to raise. I have to say, as much as I hated this thing my mom was chasing when I was younger, I’m beginning to feel a common bond.”
“So, what? You’re best buddies now? He’s going to party with you, help you with your math homework? Share a laugh or two about how you both screwed my mom over?”
Skip shook his head. A few bulges began to appear at the back of his neck. “No, not buddies. But I’m still a brother. I may be the only person who understands. Both our parents abandoned us. I’m here to help Evangelos.”
Jennifer was incredulous. “Help him what? Kill me?”
Somewhere along Skip’s spine, ridges were forming. The sound was unmistakable. So like a weredragon’s change, yet so different, she reminded herself.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Jennifer. I like you. A lot. I even thought of you as my girlfriend for a little while. But you shouldn’t come between Evangelos and me.”
There was something rising behind Skip. It took Jennifer several seconds to realize it was a segmented tail, with a large stinger dangling from its end. She took four quick steps back.
“Wha-what kind of spider are you?”
Skip’s smile broke into mandibles and several more small eyes emerged around his forehead. “We’re not werespiders, Jennifer. We’re werachnids. Arachnids count for more than just spiders. My genealogy is pretty broad, both on my mother’s and father’s side. In fact, my aunt Tavia tells me I’m rather special among our people.”
Oh, swell.
He was a full-fledged scorpion now, six feet long and five tall, brown as his chocolate hair used to be, with gold ridges down his armored body and tiny greenish eyes. The clicking of his massive foreclaws did not appear to threaten her, but seemed more an exercise of muscles.
“Pandinus imperator,” he explained. “Emperor scorpion. My favorite form, so far.”
“Favorite? So far?”
The mandibles flicked with a light chuckle. “As I was telling you, I’m a bit unique. Watch this…”
Jennifer gasped as he shifted form. His body was still dark brown but now bore the thick hairs of a spider instead of a scorpion’s armor, while his mandibles and forelegs were bright red.
“Habronattus americanus. This one’s good for jumping.”
He shifted again. Now the body was more uniformly brown, larger, and softer. It was also considerably more terrifying.
“Grammostola pulchra. Brazilian black tarantula. This one’s good for just scaring the hell out of people.”
“Congratulations,” Jennifer squeaked. She took another four steps back. “So, you’re not stuck with a single form? I’m, er, so happy for you.” Happy, horrified, same difference.
“Aunt Tavia tells me the possibilities are endless.” The enormous mandibles worked around the careless tone. “She says a werachnid like me comes along once every fifteen hundred years or so…”
“Once every fifty generations.”
“Yeah. Something like that. I’ve started quite a stir among my family’s friends. Some say I’m an omen. Others say I have our kind’s strongest known poison running through my veins.”
“Powerful blood, eh? Good thing your father didn’t get his hooks into you.” Jennifer immediately regretted the jab.
The massive tarantula’s position shifted abruptly, all eight legs tensing at once. Several of his eyes fixed on her. “Yeah. I guess so. Anyway, Jennifer, I didn’t come tonight to hurt you. I came to talk with Evangelos. Leave now, and let us talk.”
“Skip, I get he’s your brother. But if Evangelos is coming I can’t just walk away! He probably wouldn’t let me leave anyway. If you want to talk to him, let’s talk to him together. Maybe the two of us should try—”
“There is no us!” In a flurry of legs, he advanced upon her and pressed her back into a parked sport-utility vehicle. She could smell the stench of poison on him. “Jennifer, we’re through! You’re a liar and a lousy girlfriend. Go home.”
Her jaw tightened. “You know, Skip, you’re not turning out to be much of a prize boyfriend yourself.” And with that, her daggers were crossed in front of her mouth and she was screaming brilliant light and sound.
He took the assault directly in the face and scrambled back with a shriek. And just like that, he had changed again…back into a boy.
Jennifer stopped and sheathed her daggers. Skip’s eyes were tearing and he held his hands over his ears, but he was grinning. “Good one, Jennifer. Aunt Tavia warned me about that, but I’d never heard it before. Pretty careless of me.”
Far up the ramp behind her, she could hear voices, footsteps…and something familiar she couldn’t exactly place. “Skip, let’s not fight. Please. I don’t care who would win. We’d both lose.”