Dark Dreams Part 2

Lila rubbed her burning eyes, wincing as the sun hit her face. Her mouth tasted foul, her body ached as if she'd been scaling mountains in her sleep, and she felt more tired than when she'd gone to bed. But at least it was daytime now. She could put away the visions that had tormented her throughout the night.

"Lila! Better get going, or you'll be late!" her mother called sharply up the stairs.

"I'll be right there, Mom," Lila called back. Gee, what'd I do to my face to make it ache so much? she wondered, pa.s.sing an inquiring hand over her jaw. Slept on it wrong, or something. Too much tension.

With a yawn, she kicked back the covers. Then she gasped and sat bolt upright, staring down at her legs.

34 * Children of the Night They were covered all over with b.l.o.o.d.y scratches-the kind of scratches you might find on someone who had spent the night running through the woods. And her feet were black with the kind of ground-in dirt you see on someone who's been pacing barefoot for hours.

I must have been . . . walking in my sleep?

But somehow Lila couldn't see herself getting past her mother if she'd left the house in the ordinary way. She glanced over at her bedroom window. It was shut, of course. She remembered closing it the night before.

Suddenly she remembered, too, the image of a wolf streaking right through the gla.s.s and landing outside the house. That had just been part of her dream, though. It hadn't really- "What's on my face?" Lila said aloud. She'd just touched a sticky patch at one corner of her mouth, noticing as she did so that her fingernails were also torn and dirty. And her mouth was crusted with something.

She stood up and walked shakily over to the mirror above her bureau.

Her frightened reflection stared back at her.

DARK DRHAMS * 35.

Hair wildly snarled and snagged with twigs. Huge dark hollows under her eyes. And what was that dark, brownish stuff streaking her mouth and chin? Dried blood.

"Oh, no," Lila whispered. She staggered backward-and stepped on a small clump of fur lying on the floor.

It, too, was crusted with dried blood.

When the human brain is presented with an unbearable truth, it rushes to supply a more acceptable explanation of the facts. I got these scratches in the woods yesterday with Corey, Lila thought confusedly. A cat somehow got into my room and scratched me. I bit my lip while I was sleeping. I've got some kind of fever.

That seemed the most plausible, actually, considering how sick she felt now. But it still didn't fit.

The only explanation that did fit was that the dreams she'd had all night long hadn't been dreams at all.

Which would mean that she really had turned into a wolf last night. (Now she could remember exactly the dry, dead feel of the pavement under her claws as she raced for the forest.) 36 * Children of the Night But of course it was impossible that she could have turned into a wolf. Which, in turn, would mean that she had spent the night roaming the woods imagining she was a wolf. Crouching down on her hands and knees to lap water from the brook, tearing that poor racc.o.o.n to bits with her bare hands, feeling its blood running down her throat.

Lila clapped a hand over her mouth and bolted toward the bathroom.

"That was an awfully long shower, honey," said her mother as a white-faced Lila stumbled into the kitchen. "I hope you didn't use up all the hot water. I have to shower too, you know."

"Sorry, Mom," Lila said bleakly as she sat down at the breakfast table. "I wasn't thinking, I guess."

A whole ocean of boiling water wouldn 't get me clean, anyway. You can't wash this kind of thing off.

"How's your leg today?" Lila's mother asked. "Did you put a bandage on it?"

"It's about the same. Maybe a little better." Mom, don't you see that a sore leg is the least of my problems right now? Either I'm losing my mind, or I turned into DARK DREAMS * 37.

a wolf last night. Compared to that, my leg just doesn't bother me much.

"That's nice," her mother said absently, and crossed something out on the notes she was studying. "Now, what do you want for breakfast?"

Oh, I had a-let's call it a midnight snack. I'm not hungry now. In fact, I never want to eat again.

"Just some juice," Lila mumbled. "I've got to get going or I'll be late."

"So do I." Mrs. Crawford stuffed her notes into her briefcase and stood up briskly. "I'm picking up your father at the airport after work. He'll be looking forward to seeing you, so please could you make sure you're on time for supper?"

No problem. I have nowhere else to go.

"Earth to Lila! Earth to Lila! We're sitting here, if you haven't noticed."

Marci and Samantha were gazing up at Lila incredulously. It was lunchtime, and the two of them had already sat down at the girls' usual cafeteria table. Lila had just pa.s.sed their table while drifting, lunch tray in hand, toward an empty table in the back of the room.

38 * Children of the Night Now she halted and stared vaguely down at her two best friends. She felt as if she was seeing them from a great distance. "Oh," she said after a second. "Right. Hi."

"Yes, 'hi' is what we usually say when we see people we know," said Marci patiently. "Then we sit down with them and begin to eat lunch while conversing pleasantly about the events of the day. You'll understand the ways of our planet once you've lived here longer."

Samantha giggled appreciatively, but Lila didn't even smile. "I, uh-yeah," she said. "I will. But listen, guys, I'm feeling a little tired. I mean, I've got to study. 1 think I'd better sit by myself today."

Samantha hastily swallowed a mouthful of potato chips. "Lila, we always sit together!" she said in dismay. "Are you mad about something?"

"No, no." Just speaking seemed like much too much work. "I'm just . . ."

"Just being a total alien, that's all," said Marci tartly. "I was watching you in algebra, you know. You didn't even say anything when Mr. Sherbinski called on you. He gave you the weirdest look."

DARK DREAMS * 39.

Lila couldn't even remember algebra. A whole morning had pa.s.sed in front of her, and she hadn't noticed. She had walked from cla.s.s to cla.s.s like a robot and then suddenly found herself in the lunchline being handed a bowl of soup. Tomato soup. It made her sick to look at it.

"What's the matter?" Marci went on. "You're way too out of it today. Is your family being unusually dysfunctional or something?"

"No, I just . . ." Lila felt as if the floor were wavering under her feet. Standing upright was too much work, too.

"I guess I can sit here," she finally said. "There's no reason not to."

And she pulled out a chair while Samantha and Marci stared outraged at her.

"Well!" she heard Marci snap angrily. "You really must be losing it if it's such a pain for you to sit with your two best friends."

I'm not losing it, Marci. I've lost it already. You try turning into a werewolf and see what kind of a mood it puts you into.

A werewolf. That was the first time Lila had let 40 * Children of the Night herself think the word. All morning she'd been trying to block it out, and now it had popped into her mind unbidden.

I turned into a werewolf last night. And if I didn 't, I certainty acted like one.

For no reason at all, Lila suddenly remembered the health cla.s.s they'd had back in seventh grade.

A roomful of giggling, embarra.s.sed kids. Facing them, a teacher, Miss Hempel, who was almost as embarra.s.sed as they were. (Did they always stick the newest teachers with health cla.s.s? Lila wondered. Miss Hempel hadn't been more than twenty-three or twenty-four.) "I know it seems a little strange," Miss Hempel had said bravely. "But your bodies will be, uh, changing over the next few years"-a spurt of giggles from Samantha at that point-"and you should be prepared. p.u.b.erty is really nothing to be embarra.s.sed about. It's all perfectly normal."

It's all perfectly normal. These changes are all perfectly normal. You'll feel a little self-conscious, of course. Maybe a little moody. But it happens to everyone.

That was what was supposed to make you feel DARK DRKAMS * 41.

better-that it happened to everyone. Well, this certainly didn't happen to everyone.

Okay, Miss Hempel, Lila thought grimly. I think you skipped something. Let's see how you explain the changes I'm going through.

Another country Full moon. Midnight. The top of a hill thousands of miles away from the forest where Lila is roaming. Frost etching the gra.s.s, bitter chill in the air.

A hooded figure uses a pointed stone to draw two circles on the hilltop, one inside the other. In the center of the inner circle, he builds afire. Over the fire, he places a heavy cauldron.

He has spent days gathering the ingredients waiting in this cauldron. Opium. Hemlock. Parsley. Aconite. Poplar leaves. Ash. Deadly nightshade. Cowbane. Bat's blood. The last was, of course, the hardest to find. They used to use the fat of young children in this recipe, but that's even harder to manage nowadays. Oil works almost as well As the mixture in the cauldron begins to simmer, the hooded figure raises his arm.s to the moon and chants an incantation he learned centuries ago. Though his voice is cracked and old, it has eerie carrying power. The hill seems to be holding its breath, listening.

DARK DREAMS * 43.

Spirits from the deep Who never sleep, Be kind to me, chants the hooded figure.

Spirits from the grave Without a soul to save, Be kind to me.

Spirits of the air, Foul and dark, not fair, Be kind to me.

Spirits of earthbound dead That glide with noiseless tread, Be kind to me.

Spirits of heat and fire, Destructive in your ire, Be kind to me.

Spirits of cold and ice, Patrons of crime and vice, Be kind to me.

Wolves, vampires, satyrs, ghosts! Elect of all the devilish hosts!

44 * Children of the Night I pray you send hither, Send hither, send hither, The great gray shape that makes folk shiver!

Shiver, shiver, shiver!

Come, come, come!

When the foul mixture in the cauldron begins to boil, the hooded figure lifts out a spoonful of murky liquid and sprinkles it around the inner circle. That done, he kisses the ground three times and puts out the fire.

No need to wait and see if the incantation has worked. He has never known it to fail

CHAPTER 4.

Lost in thought, Lila was eating-or, rather, not eating-when a girl named Karin Engals sauntered up to the girls' table and grinned at her.

"I saw Corey last night," she told Lila with a taunting smile. "He was looking kind of grim. Trouble in paradise?"

"Corey! I forgot all about Corey!" Lila gasped before she could stop herself.

Karin's smile became even broader. "Forgetting your boyfriend? That's not a good sign, chiquita. I guess the honeymoon is over."

Considering that you couldn't find a single person who really liked her, it was hard to explain how Karin Engals had become so popular. She never went anywhere without a pack of friends in tow. Maybe people were scared to say no to her.

46 * Children of the Night Although she gave a general impression of pret-tiness, Karin had a thin, pointy face and sharp little eyes that always seemed to be looking for trouble. ("The weasel," Marci called her behind her back.) She was a great athlete, but she got furious when her teammates made mistakes. She was widely believed to plagiarize her term papers, but so cleverly that no teacher had ever discovered which books she'd stolen from. In grade school, she had been famous for pinching people. Pinching doesn't leave marks.

And it was no secret that she'd had her eye on Corey for a long time. "She's just waiting for you to let go of him for one second," Marci had once warned Lila. "Then she'll swoop down and grab him in her talons." To which Lila had answered, laughing, "Weasels don't have talons."

But there was certainly something predatory in Karin's expression as she stared down at Lila now. "How could you forget such a cute guy, Lila?" she cooed. "I mean, Corey's so crazy about you. Or is that all over?"

"Of course it's not over," Samantha said hotly DARK DREAMS * 47.

before Lila could answer. "Can't you see Lila's not feeling well?"

"Heartsick, I guess," was Karin's answer. "It's never pleasant when relationships start to go rocky."

I guess I 've got to fend her off somehow, Lila thought. Life would turn truly unbearable if Karin started snooping around and pestering her. Aloud, she said serenely, "Corey and I don't live in each other's pockets, you know. We're secure enough that we don't have to spend every single second together."

"Yeah," Samantha blurted out. "You wouldn't understand, Karin."

"Well, Corey certainly wasn't looking very secure last night," Karin shot back. "He looked pretty upset to me. Maybe I was just imagining things, but..." She let her voice trail off and gave Lila a glance that was dripping with meaning.

"Where'd you see him?" Lila asked as casually as she could.

"Oh, I get around," said Karin.

"I bet you do," Marci muttered, just loudly enough for Karin to hear.

48 * Children of the Night Karin reddened and glared at the three girls. "I happened to run into him in a restaurant, for your information. It was not that big a deal. But I can see I'm just wasting my time talking to you," she snapped.

"No kidding!" Marci said brightly.

Karin ignored her. She was glaring at Lila, and there was a hint of a threat in her face.

"Good luck with Corey," she said. "I have a feeling you'll need it." And she stalked away.

"What a lovely character," said Marci calmly. "You're so lucky she likes you, Lila."

"Are you going to put up with her?" Samantha said angrily. "You can't let her muscle in on Corey that way!"

Lila sighed. "I can't think about it now. I'll... I'll figure something out." She gave her soup a stir, then pushed her lunch tray away in disgust.

There was an awkward silence at the table.

"You know, Li," Marci finally said, "Samantha and I can't help you if you won't talk about what's the matter. You've been walking around like a ghost for two days now. Are you sick or what?"