“You mean the dance where you barely talked to my friend, and ignored her, and then just let her leave without even offering a good-night kiss?”
“Jennifer!”
“Hmmph. Sorry. Carry on.”
“I was wondering if we could…talk later. After school, in the library?”
Skip gave a snort. “Yeah, talk. Good one, Gerry. I’ll have to remember that.”
Susan stepped in front of Gerry and faced them both with teeth clenched. “All right. I know you two are used to it being all about you, but if you could both shut up and give the rest of the world a chance to spin, we’d like to enjoy the ride, too. Okay?”
“Geez, Susan, if you’re going to have a fit about—”
“Okay.” Jennifer pushed Skip back, her ears turning red. “Sorry, Susan. We’re going.”
A few steps away, she punched him. “Did you have to be so crass?”
He chuckled, rubbing his shoulder. “I don’t know Gerry too well. He’s not exactly chatty. But I can tell you, talk doesn’t mean talk.”
“Susan’s a big girl. She can handle herself. Even if the dance ended badly for them, it’s her choice if she wants to see him again.”
“Hey, speaking of dances ending badly…” He stopped and pulled her next to a row of lockers, his face serious.
“Yeah?”
“Well…you just told Gerry off for not giving Susan a kiss at the end. I just realized I left you out in the cold, too. I’m almost a week late now, but…”
Before she could respond, his lips were on hers, a bit dry but soft, and his fingers were just behind her neck. She smelled something good—cologne maybe, or just the scent he always had, just more of it.
They were like that for a few seconds, and then they weren’t. His hazel eyes stayed close to hers, though.
“So, am I your boyfriend yet?”
Her voice was a whisper. “Oh yeah, you bet.”
“Good. Come over for dinner with my aunt next week.”
“Give me another kiss first.”
A deal’s a deal, she thought midway through. Dinner at Aunt Tavia’s it was.
CHAPTER 12
Evangelos and the Beaststalker
“Mashed potatoes, dear?”
Jennifer eyed the bowl of potatoes carefully. There were specks trapped in the white, creamy swirls—presumably bits of potato skin, but she couldn’t help thinking of dragonflies or some other “catch of the day” from the nearest web. She looked over at Skip, who was watching her anxiously. It had actually been two weeks since she made her promise to Skip—first her family had been hunting down leads on Evangelos (to no avail), and then Mr. Slider had scheduled a horrific test (which she aced after intense studying), and then…
Then he reminded her the crescent moon was coming.
Be polite, she reminded herself as she turned back to his aunt.
“Um, sure. Thanks.”
Dinner was actually quite good. Tavia Saltin had been a whirl of activity in the wonderfully scented kitchen, preparing two or three different things at once while chatting cheerily and endlessly with the two of them. Even though Jennifer did not trust this woman one bit, there was something compelling in Tavia’s rapid questions and friendly tone. She was soon surprised to find herself talking openly about her own dragon nature, her father, and even Evangelos.
“So no idea who Evangelos is?” Tavia arched her eyebrows as she plopped a spoonful of mashed potatoes on her nephew’s plate. The sound echoed through the spartan dining room. Gentle strains of familiar Mozart concertos drifted in from an unseen living room.
Jennifer looked back and forth between Tavia and Skip, but saw nothing sinister in how they were acting. Tavia seemed genuinely curious, and Skip looked like…well, like a nervous boyfriend, she thought, smiling to herself.
“We’ve got some leads,” she answered. “Rune Whisper still looks promising—he’s the guy Skip helped us follow a while ago.”
“Ah, yes, Mr. Whisper.” Tavia’s eyes widened a bit. “They say he’s a government agent of some sort. Pepper on your potatoes, dear?”
How did she know that? It had taken her parents a week to find that out. “No, thanks. Yeah, my dad checked in with some contacts he knows around state and federal government, but no agency seems to have a record of him.”
Her hostess chewed on a turkey drumstick thoughtfully. “Perhaps I could check in with some contacts of my own.”
It sounded vaguely threatening. “Th-thank you. Um, of course it might not be him. We have no proof of him doing anything, besides creeping around. Mom says—”
“And how is your mom, dear?” Here Tavia’s smile extended almost literally from ear to ear. Jennifer waited breathlessly for the entire head to split open and reveal the mandibles she knew were inside that bony head.
They were in Skip, too, weren’t they? Somewhere. The thought was not new to Jennifer, but it startled her to think of it again at this moment.
“Mom’s good.” Tavia and Skip kept staring at her, so she offered a little more. “I guess since last spring she’s been finding it a little hard to live with two dragons.” Right away, she winced. Last spring was when this woman’s brother died.
Her hostess didn’t appear to notice. “Having Evangelos nearby can’t make her any happier, poor thing.” She spun the turkey leg completely around, consuming it in record time.
“We’re all a little nervous about that, yeah. Especially my dad. I’m thinking we should probably confront Rune Whisper soon.”
“I’m not sure I’d do that,” Skip interrupted politely.
“Huh?”
“I’m starting to think maybe Rune’s not the guy.”
“Why not?”
“Yes, dear, why not?” Tavia’s echo came through another creepy smile. She turned to Jennifer as she reached across and patted Skip’s arm. “He explained it so wonderfully to me earlier. Such a bright boy! His parents would be proud.”
Skip’s ears flushed a bit. “It’s possible Rune may be looking for Evangelos, just like we are. I mean, if he’s a government agent of some sort, like his paperwork says.”
“A government agency interested in Evangelos? What, like some military thing?”
“Maybe. My point is, Rune may actually be someone who can help us out.”
“Okay. But if Evangelos is not Rune, who else could he be?”
For a while, it didn’t seem like he wanted to answer. Finally, he blurted out, “Anyone, I guess. Gerry Stowe.”
“Gerry?” Jennifer couldn’t hold back the laugh. She tried to imagine that angel-faced boy as a cold killer, and just couldn’t. “Oh, come on, Skip. You’re just saying that because all the girls at school think he’s gorgeous—er, I mean, everyone but me, of course!” The correction was a bit late; Tavia was looking at her with something that might have been alarm.
Skip gave a forgiving smile. “He’s not the first good-looking guy I’ve seen, Jennifer. I know how girls can be. I’m just pointing out the facts: He’s new, he doesn’t say much, and he has a reason to be close to you.”
Jennifer bristled at the “how girls can be” remark, but kept her tone civil. “But he has a grandfather! How can he…”
She stopped at the look on his face. “Do you think he killed the real Gerry Stowe?”
His expression mirrored her fears. “His grandfather’s almost blind,” he pointed out. “Kinda hard for him to follow changes in Gerry’s body or manners. If the kid used to have a slightly bigger nose, who’s to know? And there’s something else. The Stowes’ house? It’s between the school and the hospital.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, when we were following Rune, he looked like he was heading to the school. But what if he was doing research on Evangelos at the hospital—checking doctor visits or something—and then was going from there to the Stowes’ house instead?”
“I don’t know…” It wasn’t just that she didn’t know, Jennifer admitted to herself, it was the possibility that Susan might be trying to date a monster like Evangelos.
“Of course, it’s just one possibility, dear!” Tavia had regained her sunny composure and was spearing pea pods on her dinner plate. “I’ll admit I don’t follow Skip’s school activities too much, but—”
The doorbell interrupted her. She gave a surprised whoop and launched herself out of her chair, bounding out of the room to see who it was. Her voice lost none of its enthusiasm (nor volume, Jennifer noted dryly) as she disappeared down the hallway.
“Why, Mr. Slider! What an unexpected treat! Come in, please! Here, I’ll help you get up that little step…”
Skip and Jennifer exchanged startled glances. What was Edmund Slider doing here?
After a few moments, Tavia poked her maniacal smile back into the kitchen. “Skip, dear, you wouldn’t mind finishing dinner with our guest, would you? And clean up the dishes? Mr. Slider and I have some business to attend to in the living room. There’s a dear.”
From that point on, Tavia lowered her voice a great deal, and Jennifer could not make out anything of her distant conversation with their geometry teacher. The two teenagers finished their meal, and she helped Skip clear off the table.
“So you’re sure it’s Gerry?” Time had worn off the initial shock at the idea.
Skip took a gravy boat from her and rinsed it out in the sink. “I’m not sure it’s anyone, just yet. I’m just trying to stay open to all possibilities.” He jerked his head toward the living room. “In independent study, Mr. Slider talks a lot about logic. He says it’s important not just to know things, but also—”
“—to know what you don’t know,” Jennifer finished for him thoughtfully. “Yes, he said the same thing in geometry class.”
“We don’t know how old Evangelos is. We don’t know where else he’s been since he came into this world, or how well he can disguise himself, or what languages he can speak.”
He leaned in close and breathed frightening words on her neck. “Jennifer, we don’t even know if he’s killed someone we know and replaced them!”
She shivered. Suddenly, Aunt Tavia’s laugh came, shrill and hard, from the living room. The sound made her jump and she looked at Skip, alarmed.
He gave her a grim look. “Come on. Let’s load these dishes in the washer.”
It was the next morning, just before Jennifer walked through the front door of Winoka High, when she noticed the birds.
They were only specks, circling high above. But she recognized them instantly as birds of prey. Not the golden eagles her mother could call, but something smaller. Hawks, she guessed. Hawks were not uncommon across Minnesota; many of them patrolled the ditches alongside highways for scurrying rodents.
But she was fairly sure hawks were lone hunters. In any case, they didn’t normally move in formations of a dozen or more.
Susan’s voice came up behind her. “Hey, Jennifer, whatcha lookin’ at?” A few seconds went by. “Huh. You checkin’ out those birds?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, they’re pretty cool. So, um. I’ve got to talk to you. About Gerry.”
It turned out, as Susan told Jennifer, that Gerry did, in fact, want to talk on that day a couple of weeks ago, and several times since. More than talk: He had lots of questions.
“Really? What did he want to know about you?” Jennifer adjusted her backpack and grinned, but Susan didn’t return the smile.
“Actually, he didn’t want to know much about me. He asked about you.”
“Oh?” Jennifer slowed down. “Oh. Oh, Susan, I’m sorry. You know I—”
Susan held a hand up. She was trying to smile, but she was wet around the eyes. “I know. I know, Jennifer. It’s like I told you: You’re all anyone can talk about!”
Jennifer reached out for the hand, and Susan let her take it with a sniffle. “He’s a jerk for using you. I’ll crush him if he asks me out. I promise.”
“Thanks. No, he’s not a jerk. He’s just a boy. He doesn’t know any better. Like I said before: Boys are sad.”
“What kind of stuff did he ask?” Jennifer wasn’t sure how to phrase this. “I mean, was it creepy at all?”
Her friend stifled a laugh. “No, not too creepy. He’s not much of a talker, but he’s been working you into just about every conversation we’ve had for weeks. He’s asked how long we’ve been friends, and did I think you and Skip were serious, and…um, he’s asked if you were a dragon.”
Jennifer felt a chill. “A dragon?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, he saw you at the Halloween dance, remember?”
Jennifer relaxed a little, but there was a moment of hesitation.
“Jennifer, I talked to my dad after I found out about you being a dragon. He told me about how my family came here from Duluth, when I was a baby. We moved to get away from…well, from…”
“People like me.”
“Yeah. Um, you remember my mom?”
“Sure.” Susan’s mother had died of cancer when they were both nine years old.
“Well, Mom was pretty superstitious. When I was only six months old, my mother had me in a stroller for a walk when something began to stalk her. It was enormous, with lots of legs, and my mother was convinced it was a giant spider. She told my father. I don’t think he believed her, but she was so hysterical, we moved out of Duluth.”
“And they chose Winoka, because of the beaststalkers.”
“Yeah, beaststalkers. That’s what they call themselves, right? They offer protection to families like ours. People who are afraid.” Susan wiped some stray brown curls from her face. “Mom didn’t say much about dragons, but she talked about spiders all the time. I was terrified of them. Geez, when I think of how much insecticide I would blast the poor things with when I found them. I was afraid they’d grow to the size of a couch and swallow me whole.
“When Mom got sick…she told me it was a spider’s curse. Dad didn’t believe her, of course. But then we heard rumors of a town named Eveningstar. Nobody would talk openly about it, but there were stories of spiders, and fire.”
Jennifer couldn’t suppress a small shudder. It was Otto Saltin, Skip’s werachnid father, who had led the sorcerous charge that destroyed her original hometown, when she was a small child. Her family had been one of the few weredragon families to escape.
“After Mom died, I kinda forgot about giant spiders and beaststalkers—though normal spiders still creep me out. I never saw or heard much of anything magical again…until you told me about yourself. I guess that means there are giant spiders too, huh?”