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Henry drove us back to the Peyton's house, and all four of us went into the entertainment room, where they had a screen television that took up most of the wall, the latest gaming, a multitude of movies, and music. Kayla disappeared into her room upstairs, where she did not invite me, and returned a few minutes later in jeans, sweater, and socks, and sat next to me. She had brushed her hair out but left her makeup on.
We rested on a brown leather loveseat while Henry and Mandy hogged the full-sized couch. They started kissing heavily. I focused on the movie. From the corner of my eye, I spotted Kayla's hand and reached out interlocking my fingers with hers. She smiled at me and returned her attention to the television.
A few minutes later, Henry and Mandy left the room. What the heck was he doing? Had he lost his mind, going into Mandy's bedroom?
"Are your parents at home?" I had to ask. I needed to know if I had to rescue my brother at any minute and make a hasty escape.
"My parents are in bed. They allow Henry in Mandy’s room."
What? My stomach tightened. Did Kayla expect the same from me?
As if reading my mind Kayla shook her head. "No one comes into my room."
I sighed in relief. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what we’d do in her room. I mean, I had just met the girl. And though many of the kids at school were casually sleeping with each other I didn’t see the point. Besides, I had other things on my mind tonight, namely the chupacabra and stopping my fellow students from getting permanently changed.
I gave Henry twenty minutes, checking my watch every five. I needed to get back to the school before Hadler and company left. Time was running out.
When Kayla went into the kitchen, I took out my phone and pretended to have received a call. When she returned to the room, I talked into the phone. “Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay." I hung up and gave her an apologetic smile. "We've got to go. It's my grandfather."
Kayla frowned. "Didn't he just get out of the hospital?"
"Yeah." I pushed to my feet. "Thanks for going to the dance with me." I shifted from one foot to the other. "Do you think you'd want to go out sometime?” I rushed to add, “With me?" I stumbled over my words like an idiot.
"Sure."
I smiled. "Where's your sister's bedroom?"
"Up the stairs. First door on your right."
"Thanks." I climbed two stairs at a time and knocked lightly on the door, and listened. Silence. I knocked again. "Henry," I said in a whispered rush. Reaching out, I twisted the handle and poked in my head. I took in the scene of Henry and Mandy on the bed with a blanket draped over them, thankfully their clothes on.
Mandy gasped.
Henry glared at me. "What are you doing barging in here?"
"I'm sorry, but we've got to go. It's Gramps." I prayed he'd forgive me later.
"Is he okay?"
"I'll tell you in the car."
Henry nodded. Twinges of guilt seeped into me as he leaped from the bed, stuffing his shirt back in his pants and slipping on his shoes. He grabbed his jacket and tie, kissed Mandy, and hurried out of the house with me. Henry revved the engine and sped out of the driveway.
Once we were a mile down the main road, I said, “I need you to drive me back to the school."
Henry's nostrils flared and knuckled whitened on the steering wheel. "You jerk! There's nothing wrong with Gramps is there?"
"No. But something's happening tonight, and I need your help."
As Henry drove, his anger subsiding. "What's going on?"
"Who's ever behind the drug is planning on changing Jerry, his friends, and their girlfriends tonight after the dance."
"What?"
I shook my head. "There's no going back either. Once they've changed, they'll be changed forever."
"You mean they'll turn into those ugly dog creatures?"
"Yep."
"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"
"’Cuz I didn't want to get you involved. It's why I wanted to take separate cars. And I had no idea you and Mandy were going to-well-you know." A long silence hung in the car. "So did you—”
"No. I have, but not with Mandy."
My brows shot up. "Did Mom and Dad find out?"
"I think Dad figured it out, but Mom, are you kidding? She'd have freaked."
I exhaled. What an understatement!
"Don't tell her either. Don't tell either one of them. They don't need to know." Henry was defensive.
"I won't if you won't."
Henry's eyes widened. "You mean you're hooking up?" Could he only think with his pants?
"No. I mean if you won't tell them that I'm helping Gramps. Dad knows a little, but he doesn't have a clue I’m working Gramps’s case for him. You know they'd make me quit."
"You like helping Gramps, don't you?"
"Yeah. I do."
A lull hung between us. "You know, David. You don't need to start sleeping with girls because other guys are doing it. I know a lot of guys who want to wait until they're in college. In fact, one of our coaches urged us to wait until we got married like he did." Was he channeling dad or something?
"You think he's telling the truth?"
"Yeah. He's pretty religious." He paused. "I'm saying it's smarter to wait and make sure you're ready, and you’re with a girl who means something to you."
"Are you're talking from experience?"
Henry snorted. "My first time was horrible. I was a freshman. She was a senior and experienced. I wasn’t ready. It affected me for months afterward and in a bad way."
"You never said anything."
Henry lifted a shoulder. "What's there to say?"
I didn't understand what he went through and wondered if that’s why he had avoided steady relationships with girls. We reached the school and drove into the parking lot. Most of the kids had left. A few lingered outside, and a handful of cars remained in the parking lot.
"I hate to tell you this, David, but Jerry's car is gone."
Crap! My mind raced. "I might know where they went. Let's go." We drove back to the main road and headed for the house we had found Tom in. Cars lined both sides of the street, but no loud music or voices blared from the home. Two lights gleamed through the slit in the curtains. I frowned. They had to be in there, but I didn’t see silhouettes. We parked at the top of the street. "Stay here, Henry and no matter what don’t come in after me. Call Gramps and tell him where I'm at. He'll know why I'm here."
“David, I could help you.”
I shook my head. “This guy is as powerful as Gramps. He’ll kill you.”
"Shouldn’t you wait for backup?"
"There's no time. I can stall until Gramps gets here." I jogged along the sidewalk, tripping on the many cracks and buckles in the concrete.
The closed curtains blocked my view, but as I moved closer, I saw somebody standing in the room. Keeping to the shadows, I hustled along the driveway. A brown Dodge Dart was parked near the garage. I sucked in air. Dodge Dart. Now I remember! It was Mr. Otto's car. He had to be behind Canis. I swear the guy had been at the school, since its inception in the eighteen hundreds!
I hunched low, running to the side of the garage and checking the door. Finding it unlocked, I slipped inside. I grabbed my wand from the inside of my coat, scurried through the garage and into the kitchen. I crept inside and paused, listening. At first, all I heard, was the rush of air whooshing in and out my nose.
A deep voice resounded from the living room.
I recognized it immediately.
"This life I'm offering you will free you from the constraints of human bondage."
I tiptoed further in, pressed my back against the refrigerator, and took a quick peek.
Mr. Valdez stood with his back to the stairs. He wore a black robe with red symbols on it that I didn’t recognize. He lifted his arms above his head, the light on his black hair giving it a blue sheen and his eyes glowing red. His nostrils flared out. He was a preacher on the pulpit, rambling about the virtues of becoming a chupacabra. He held a glass bowl filled with white pills. "I worked on this pill. Now instead of taking several each day, you only need one, and you'll be powerful and fast all day, every day."
Why hadn't I seen it before? He hadn't been shocked seeing those chupacabras attacking Henry and me in the hallway. He also kept close to Mr. Otto, the chemistry teacher, to use his lab and pick his brain. Where was Mr. Otto? I didn't see or hear him? Was he involved in this or not? I hoped Valdez hadn't locked him in the mirror. I didn’t have the motivation to get him out.
I peeked further around the corner. Jerry, Shelby, Kyle, and Chad sat on the floor, staring at Valdez. The coffee table was in the corner of the room pushed behind the sofas. They had moved one couch lengthwise in front of the fireplace to face the staircase while the other sofa stood in front of the window. Their dates were unconscious, laying on their sides, two to a couch. I recognized them and knew their first names, Lucy, Cindy, Pam, and Sally. What had they been given to knock them out?
"Pass this bowl around and we will change together." Valdez stretched his arm out to Jerry. Jerry pushed off the floor to get a glass bowl filled with white tablets, looking exactly like the mints Chad and Kyle had given Devlin at the football game.
I had to do something to keep those pills from reaching anyone of those girls and guys, but I risked exposing my magic.
Jerry rose and faced my direction. His eyes were glazed a red tint to them already. Valdez had either given these guys another drug or put them under a spell.
I moved into the opening between the kitchen and living room and used my wand to send a bolt. The bowl and pills exploded, shards of glass flying, and most of the pills disintegrating into puffs.
Jerry growled at me, his eyes glowing. Was it too late for him?
"No!" Valdez cried. "These students are mine. Mine to keep the Chupacabra alive, continue its existence. We will live again in the wilderness of the Northwest, becoming better, stronger, more powerful with magical abilities."
"Like heck, you will!"
Magic shot from Valdez's hand at me. I blocked it with Gramps’s ring, the band growing warm on my middle finger, the power fierce, but not as impacting as Gramps. When Valdez sent another bolt at me, I dove to the side and rolled on the floor toward the living room and closer to Jerry and friends. A chair behind me disintegrated, pieces of wood stabbed into the wall, their ends as sharp as blades while splinters splattered on my coat, and jeans. I scrambled to my feet.
Shelby flung his body at me, but I hurled a handful of magic at him. He flew back, crashing on Kyle and Chad, a roar ripping from his throat.
Jerry lunged at me next, growling and snarling, a vicious wild dog, yet he hadn’t turned. Saliva dripped from the sides of his mouth. As animalistic as he acted, he swung his fist at me.
I ducked back but the breeze of his movement brush within inches of my face. Curling my fingers, I countered with a jab to his jaw.
He blinked several times stunned for a few seconds. When he stumbled back, tripping and falling on his butt. A howl erupted from him.
"Get him!" Valdez screamed. "Grab his arms."
Kyle and Chad jumped to their feet and rushed at me. I dug deep inside to build enough energy and sent a jagged blue light at one, and the other. My first strike hit Chad square in the chest, but Jerry grabbed my foot. I wobbled, sending my other shot into the ceiling. A hole formed and bits and pieces of plaster rained on our heads.
Chad grabbed my arm while Jerry struggled to his feet. I slammed him in the shoulder with my magic. He fell back, landing on his butt again.
"Let him go," Valdez cried. Chad reluctantly released me with a shove. An instant later, Valdez shot me in the chest with an electrical bolt. I flew back through the air and crashed into the wall beside the fireplace. I slid to the floor on my bottom; my knees jarred my chin, squish behind the sofa. I struggled for air, my chest weighing as if a thousand-pound wrecking ball had smashed into it. But I had held on to my wand. Pursing my lips and flexing my nostrils, I dragged in oxygen, forcing it out until I controlled it. I gave a sharp shake to my head and slowly pushed to my feet.
Valdez came at me, his hand raised, his eyes blazing red. "You will not destroy my dream. The chupacabra is close to extinction. If I don't create a new order, they will be gone forever."
"You're destroying these student’s lives," I cried, scooting out from behind the couch as I spoke and meeting Valdez halfway, five-feet separating us. "They don't know what they’re doing. They don't understand this will change them forever. It should be their choice, whether or not to become a chupacabra permanently." I pointed at them.
"I had to put a spell on them for the change to happen," Valdez said.
"And the girls? They don't know what their dates have gotten them into."
Valdez curled his upper lip. His black eyes were balls of crazy. "Not my problem. We need females. They should be proud to be part of the project! Reviving this species!"
"I won't let you do this to them."
Valdez belched out a brittle laugh. “You won’t have a choice.”
I thrust my wand out and hit Valdez right in the breadbasket. He fell back, knocking into Jerry. I needed to get Valdez angry, changing him into a chupacabra, and causing his wizard powers to vanish. He switched to Spanish. I didn’t understand a single word but had a pretty good idea he was swearing. I don’t know why, but I brought that out in people.
Right before my eyes, Valdez transformed from human to the creature, his long fangs poking out of his mouth, and a pink tongue dripping juices. His growl started out rumbling but quickly grew in pitch. Slowly, he rose on his two back paws, and my eyes followed and widened as his height grew to seven feet. Was he bigger than before? His breath, foul and hot, panted in my face. I tried not to inhale, the odor stinking dog farts.
Jerry came at me again, but Valdez warned him off with a snarl and quick snap to push him back. The two alpha males vied for domination. How long would it take before Jerry killed Valdez, once he changed permanently?
The second Valdez turned to me I hurled a lightning bolt at him, straight into his heart. He yelped and collapsed, unmoving on the carpet. He slowly turned back to human form.
I sighed, thinking the worst was over. I was wrong.
Jerry and Shelby growled at me.
“Really guys?”
They came at me, roaring as if they were tackling a lineman. I was drained, the power in me nearly gone. I escaped one takedown, but Jerry was too agile and quick.
He pounced on me, slamming me into the ground. I met his wild glare, and quickly shifted to his white knuckles coming at my face. I dropped my wand and grabbed his fist with both my hands, barely stopping it in time. It became a tug-of-war between us. His fist came close to my face, and I pushed it away.
All the anger I felt toward Jerry, months of continued torment, taunting, threats, tripping, cheating, and million other things he did just this year alone, renewed my energy, springing me back to life. Closing my eyes, I sucked in the force from my breadbasket, a warmth whizzing through my gut, chest, and shoulders, and into my arms. This was for the time he shoved me in the locker, locked it, and left me there. This was for cheating on my Chemistry paper and blaming me. This was for bullying me so many times I couldn’t count and terrorizing all the other small guys like me. Magic fired out of my hands like Mount St. Helens erupting. I released a warrior cry with it.
Jerry spiraled in the air, smashing through the stair railing. He slammed into the wall, slid down, and sprawled on his back on the stairs, unconscious.
I jumped to my feet and jerked toward Shelby, Chad, and Kyle. They coward away.
A minute later, an army of footsteps ran to the front of the house. Hoss bashed through the door, busting it off its hinges and stomped inside. Gramps and Henry followed, along with ten agents. They worked quickly checking on the students, and removing them from the house. Gramps had put magical handcuffs on Valdez before he was hauled away.
Henry rushed over to me, assessing the situation, and then studied me. “David, did you did all of this with your magic?”
“Let’s just say I paid Jerry back for many things.” I grinned.
Henry shook his head, glancing at the shattered railing, the dented walls, the smashed pills, shards of glass, and the beaten Valdez, and football players.
Gramps ambled over to me. "Why didn't you wait?"
"He was handing out the pills when I got here. There was no time. One pill and they were permanently changed." I rubbed the back of my head.
“Do you need medical attention?” Hoss asked.
“No.”
"You’re pale, David," Henry said.
I knew why. I had used every ounce of my magical energy. It left me spent. "I'm okay." I lied, my limbs were limp as if I had run a triathlon. I ambled with Gramps and Henry to the front door, leaning against the wall.
Amongst the commotion in the room, a pounding came from upstairs. What the heck? No one else seemed to hear it. Instead of going outside, I climbed the stairs, stepping over Jerry, and followed the noise into a back bedroom at the end of the hall, the one with the mirror in it. I cracked the door and pushed it wide, grinning.
Sitting on the floor in the corner of the room, his hands and feet bound, and a gag in his mouth was Mr. Otto mumbling incoherently.
"This is too perfect." I flipped on the overhead light.
Otto yelled through the gag, raised his tied hands, his face flaming red and nostrils flaring.
"Wait a minute." I spread my fingers wide and waved my hands. I waited for Otto to calm. "I want to savor this moment."
Otto thrashed his head side to side as he mumbled into the binding.
"Untie him, David," Gramps snapped.
I jerked my head to the side, startled by Gramps. I hadn’t heard him come down the hall or into the room. I held up a finger. "Just a second." I took out my phone and snapped a photo. Crouching, I worked out the knots binding Mr. Otto but left the gag for last.
"I should flunk you Finkleman!"
"Now that's gratitude for you." I flung my arms out to my sides. "I saved your sorry—”
"David!" Gramps gave me another warning.
"Yeah. Yeah." I extended my hand to Mr. Otto, who had a hard time standing. "I saved your sorry butt, and this is the thanks I get. I should get an A for awesomeness."
Mr. Otto legs wobbled. I grabbed him and slung his arm over my shoulders, and we hobbled out together. I handed him off to an agent at the top of the stairs.
At the front door, Mr. Otto paused me. "Finkleman. You overpowered Valdez?"
"Uh, the element of surprise gets ‘em every time."
Mr. Otto nodded. "Good work, Finkleman."
I grinned. "Be careful, Mr. Otto. I might think you like me."
Mr. Otto shook his head. "No chance of that Finkleman. No chance of that." A lopsided grin formed on his face.
I shambled with Gramps to Henry's car. "Let's hope this is the end of it."
"I think it is. I have agents sweeping the school as we speak. No pill will exist anywhere ever again. And Hoss took care of Eddie and Frankie. They won’t be bothering you.”
I nodded. “Did the big snake eat them?” I hoped.
Gramps’s brows rose in surprise. “You saw Bertha?”
“Yeah. She tried to bit off Eddie’s head, and he didn’t even know it.”
Gramps chuckled. “She was playing. Hoss sends her out sometimes, playing go fetch.”
I frowned. Fetch with a magical snake? Okay.
"Well, boys, you'd better get home before your parents get worried." Gramps placed his hand on my shoulder. "We'll talk later."
I collapsed on the passenger’s seat of the Mustang and closed my eyes. My energy had been sucked from me, every ounce of it. When Henry ignited the engine, I opened my eyes to see Gramps totter back into the house. I had no idea what would happen to those kids, but I knew the FBI handled magical cases covertly. I longed for my bed and a good night’s sleep.
"You okay, David?" Henry was a good brother.
"Yeah. Drained."
"So what happened in there? Everyone was, well, out of it."
"They had a spell on them. None of them will remember any of it. I think. I hope. Otherwise, I'm screwed."
"Why?"
"Because I had to use my magic. A lot of it. Valdez was a wizard on top of being the leader of the chupacabras. If Gramps hadn't given me his protection ring, I'd probably be dead."
Henry’s mouth formed an O. "David." A paused followed. "Maybe this work is too dangerous for you. Maybe you should wait until you're older, stronger to work with Gramps." Maybe Henry and Dad shared a brain.
"Are you kidding? Back there was incredible. An adrenaline rush. I'm not quitting."
Henry chuckled and shook his head. "You've got to be either the bravest person I've ever met or the stupidest. You’re all right, little brother." He gripped my shoulder and squeezed.
I grinned.
