Lila's eyes filled with tears. "Yes, I think sick DARK DRKAMS * 49.

would be a good word." She ran a trembling finger over her lunch tray, fighting to keep her composure. "But I ... I can't talk about it right now. I'm really sorry, guys. It's just too hard to explain."

"You don't have anything terrible, do you?" gasped Samantha.

Lila gave a watery laugh. "No. It's nothing like that. You're just going to have to trust me. I'll tell you when I can. If I ever can. Right now"-she stood up decisively-"I've got to track down Corey. There's something I need to tell him."

Note from Samantha Bardel to Marri Zurich: I've got Pictonfor study hall. He's such a disgust-oid. Speaking of disgustoids-I think Karin's out to get Corey, don't you? Lila better be careful. I hope Lila's okay though! She was acting so wierd at lunch. What do you think is going on? Maybe she's got her period! Or maybe. . . do you think she could be pregnant ?

Note from Mard Zurich to Samantha Bardel: It's "weird, "not "wierd. "Anyway, I'm starting to get tired of worrying about Lila Lila Lila all the 50 * Children of the Night time. I mean, we all have problems- especially you* (Just kidding.) But why should she get all the attention when she gets a hangnail or something? Just because she's the most popular girl in school, everyone thinks everything has to revolve around her! I know I shouldn 't say this, but I'm a little p.i.s.sed off at Lila today. Even if she's in a bad mood, it wouldn 't kill her to try to act like a normal person. But you're right about Karin. She's working on something-I just know it That little b.i.t.c.h-I mean weasel. Do they call female weasels "b.i.t.c.hes," I wonder? It would suit her.

Lila finally found Corey putting some books into his locker. Even his back looked sad to her, and she felt another rush of guilt when she remembered the day before. "Hi," she said, touching his sleeve tentatively. "How are you?"

Corey took his time turning around. When he finally faced her, Lila saw that his eyes were squinched up with concern, like a child's. "How are you?" he asked. "That's more important. What happened last night? Are you mad at me?"

"That's the second time someone's asked me DARK DREAMS * 51.

that today," Lila said ruefully. "I'm not mad at anyone, Corey. Especially not you."

Corey reached out to touch her cheek-and Lila jerked back as though a moth had landed on her face. "Sorry," she said, trying to laugh. "You startled me." So I still don't want him to touch me, she thought dismally. Well, I'm going to have to get over that. This is the guy I love.

She gritted her teeth and put both arms around Corey's neck. "Give me another chance," she murmured. "I was feeling super-sick last night. I'm a lot better today."

"What was the matter, babe?"

"Oh, I don't know." She grinned coyly up at him. What a fake I am, she thought. "Hormones, or something. You know how girls get." A s.e.xist fake. Listen to me! How can he stand me?

Corey certainly didn't seem to realize what she was thinking. "Actually, I don't know how girls get," he answered, his voice happier. "Maybe you can, you know, give me some lessons."

"Well, maybe," Lila forced herself to answer after a second. "What are you doing this afternoon?"

52 * Children of the Night Corey looked surprised. "I've got practice, like always."

"Oops! That's right. Sorry. Well, do you want to do something tonight? After supper?"

"Great!" said Corey. "A walk in the woods?"

No! She couldn't face the woods again! "Mmm. It's a little chilly, don't you think?" Lila said. "How about if we just drive around?" She'd be able to keep Corey at a nice safe distance if he was driving.

"I'll pick you up at seven-thirty." Corey leaned down and gave Lila a gentle kiss. "Can't wait, babe. Now I've got to get to cla.s.s. And so do you."

As he headed down the hall, his cheerful voice drifted back to her. "Should be a pretty night for a drive, with that full moon and everything."

"It's nice to see you again, Lila," Mr. Crawford said cordially that night at supper. He dabbed prissily at his lips with a starched white napkin.

"It's nice to see you, too, Dad," answered Lila. "How was your trip?"

"Fairly productive." Mr. Crawford never said anything was fine. He liked his speech to be extremely precise, which meant that when he traveled DARK DREAMS * 53.

on business Lila always felt sorry for the people he'd be meeting. It couldn't be fun being lectured by a man whose every sentence sounded as though he'd written it out beforehand.

"Your mother tells me you've been feeling un-well," he continued. "What exactly seems to be the matter?"

Well, you see, I seem to be acting like a werewolf, Dad. Of course Lila didn't tell him that. "Just general cruddiness, I guess," she said, shrugging.

Mr. Crawford frowned slightly and dabbed his mouth with his napkin again. " 'General cruddiness' doesn't convey much to me. Can you be a little more specific, dear?" he asked.

I don't think that would be in my best interests, Dad. "It's not important, really," said Lila. "I'm just a little stressed out." Quickly she changed the subject. "Corey will be picking me up after supper," she told her parents. "We're going for a drive."

"Is all your homework done, dear?" asked her mother.

"Of course it is, Mom," Lila said impatiently. "I wouldn't go out if it weren't. You know that."

"Well, it never hurts to check," Mrs. Crawford 54 * Children of the Night replied. And that ended the interesting part of the family's dinner conversation.

I live in a mausoleum, Lila said to herself as she rose to clear her plate. But right now, maybe that was better than having the kind of parents who realized you were alive, who actually paid attention to you. It meant you could hide things a lot more easily.

Silver-edged clouds were scudding across the black sky when Corey came to pick up Lila. The wind howled mournfully, as though it were looking for the moon the clouds had taken away. Dried leaves scuttled across the sidewalk as Lila and Corey hurried toward the car.

"It's nice and cozy in here," Lila said gratefully as she fastened her seatbelt. "Are we going anywhere special?"

"Nah, just cruising around," said Corey. "Unless you've got somewhere in particular you want to go," he added politely.

Lila couldn't help laughing. "You sound as though you're talking to my mother or something, Corey!"

DARK DREAMS * 55.

"I just want to make sure you're happy," Corey said. "You know, we don't even have to go out if you're not feeling well. If your hormones are acting up, or whatever."

"I'm fine. Really. My hormones are fine. How'd practice go today?" Lila asked. Anything to get him off the topic of how she was feeling.

Corey brightened. "It went pretty good," he said. "I don't know what our chances are for this Sat.u.r.day's game, but. . ."

Lila knew from experience that he'd keep going on this topic for a while. Usually she was happy to listen. After all, whatever made Corey happy made her happy, right? Tonight, though, she was relieved just to sink down in her seat, her mind a blank, and let his voice wash soothingly over her.

This was normal life. This was the way it should be. Lila and Corey spending a cozy evening together, homework all finished, talking about Sat.u.r.day's game. (One of them talking about it, anyway.) Just two happy, ordinary high-school kids-content to be happy and ordinary-driving through a suburban neighborhood. Everything was bland and normal. There was nothing weird about either of them.

56 * Children of the Night If last night happened at all, Lila told herself firmly, it was just a quirk. It will never happen again. Look at me! I'm not insane, and I'm not some kind of monster, either! I'm just-- "Whoa! There's the moon!" Corey's voice broke into her thoughts. "I guess it's clearing up outside after all. Is that what they call a harvest moon, Li?" He pointed through the left side of the windshield to where the moon, huge and golden, was hovering smack in the middle of the sky.

"How beautiful," Lila started to say. But she hadn't gotten past the first word before the moon's implacable stare hit her full in the face.

The instant its light touched her, Lila felt her scar beginning to throb and her skin beginning to crawl. The sensation was terribly familiar. After all, she'd experienced it only twenty-four hours before.

"It really happened," she whispered.

"What'd you say, babe?" Corey asked brightly.

Ok, no. I wasn 't imagining last night. It's the moon that changes me!

Lila clenched her fists over palms that were already beginning to itch as they sprouted fur.

DARK DREAMS * 57.

"Pull over," she said in a panic. I can't let him see me this way! "Pull over right here."

"Hey, what's the matter?" Corey asked, peering over at her. "You look kind of-"

"Corey! Just stop the car!" Lila shrieked. It's going to happen any second!

"Okay! Okay!" With a screech of brakes, Corey pulled over to the side of the road and stopped. Then he turned to Lila, his face half-worried and half-annoyed.

"What'd I do now?" he asked. "Geez, Lila! I thought we were having fun this time! Are you sick again? Is that it? Should I take you home?"

But Lila couldn't answer him. There was no time. Her body was about to explode, and her only conscious thought was that she couldn't be around Corey when it happened.

She wrenched open the pa.s.senger door and hurled herself out onto the road. For only a second she paused to get her bearings. Then she streaked away into the dark.

She was barely out of sight behind a tree when the transformation took place.

CHAPTER 5.

It is much easier this second night. The instant the wolf exists, she is free. She knows where the woods are now and has no trouble finding them. And how friendly the moon is tonight, how golden and welcoming! Its mellow light shows her an endless tantalizing path through the trees, a path crisscrossed with hundreds of invisible tracks from the animals who have been there before. Invisible, but there all the same, for she can translate their various scents without any effort tonight. She is getting better at being a wolf.

At first she runs aimlessly, almost as if she were a human leafing idly through a book, stopping here and there to examine an ill.u.s.tration more closely. She tracks scents just to see where they'll take her. She scrambles to the top of a rocky slope to look DARK DREAMS * 59.

down at the view. She splashes noisily through the brook for the sheer pleasure of getting her feet wet.

Somewhere deep she carries the unconscious knowledge of how to play, and playing is all she wants to do tonight.

Unfortunately, she won't get the chance. As the wolf is rolling puppy-like in a pile of deliciously scratchy pine needles, a new smell suddenly flickers across the edge of her senses. The wolf stops in mid-roll, then flips to her feet. She recognizes this smell. And yet. . . something is wrong.

It's a male human. She should get away, flee as fast as she can. But this is a human she knows. Smelling emotions is easy for the wolf, and she can tell that he is boiling with them. Fear? Anger? Confusion? She can't quite read them all. There are too many feelings flooding the air at once.

Somehow, though, she knows that the emotions are directed at her. How is that possible? What does she have to do with humans? Curious, she heads off to find the source of all these signals.

The scent is quite fresh. He must be nearby.

The wolf trots along intently, sniffing the trail. After a few minutes, she begins to hear the human 60 * Children of the Night as well. You can always recognize humans; they make so much noise. This one is crashing along like a bear. (Why? the wolf wonders. With all that moonlight, he should have no trouble seeing where he's going.) Suddenly he doubles back in his tracks and heads toward her, still so noisily that the wolf has no trouble slipping into the underbrush to watch him pa.s.s.

There he is. Young, she can see. Not fully grown yet, despite his height. Doesn't know she's here, and yet he's thinking about her. Can it be that he's looking for her? The wolf doesn't know why, but she suspects that he is.

Hunger begins to coil unbidden in her stomach.

Now, in her own mind, the thoughts start to battle. She has no need to fear this human. He doesn't want to hurt her. Indeed, the wolf has a confused sense that somehow she has hurt him, although she can't understand why this should be. Certainly he doesn't smell like an enemy.

He does, however, smell like prey. And the wolf can't help reacting to that.

Canids-members of the dog family-are programmed to eat whenever they get the chance. In DARK DREAMS * 61.

the wild, they never know where their next meal will come from. It is to their advantage to bolt down large quant.i.ties of food whenever they find them. For this reason they are, basically, always hungry.

And this human is heading straight toward the wolf, with no idea that danger is waiting for him.

The wolf licks her lips hopefully. She doesn't think she can resist. The human would be simple to bring down, she is sure. One snap at his throat, and . . . She can almost taste him now.

No, she decides. She will not hold back.

She crouches down in the underbrush and prepares to spring. He is only a few paces away.

Like a silver streak the wolf leaps out and flies at the human, toppling him like a tree. His head hits the ground with a dreadful sound. The wolfs front paws pin down his shoulders before he has time to move. All she has to do is tear out his throat.

Just for an instant, though, she can't resist staring down at him. Let him realize what he's dealing with! Her glowing-green eyes bore into his terrified blue ones.

Terrified, yes. But the human is not as helpless as the wolf had thought. He stares back at her without 62 * Children of the Night flinching. He knows what's coining, and he's determined to accept it bravely.

It's the wolf who flinches instead. She hadn't expected this, hadn't known there was anything in a human's expression that could reach her. She is stunned in the presence of such despairing courage.

She is so ravenous she can hardly stand still, but some last vestige of human thought holds her back. With a sound that is almost a moan, she wrenches herself off the human and tears back into the underbrush.

The human lies motionless for a second. Then, painfully, he stands up, straightens himself, and staggers off down the path.

With hunger lashing at her insides, the wolf watches him stumble away. She wishes desperately that she could follow him. She wishes she understood why she's commanding herself to leave him alone.

As soon as he is out of sight, the wolf races off in the opposite direction. She is faint with hunger now. The first thing she needs to do is find some other creature to kill.

CHAPTER 6.

"How are you doing, honey?"

Corey Ryan's mother paused in his bedroom doorway, tray in hand. On the tray were the three foods she always gave to her children when they were sick: Jell-O, crackers, and chocolate milk with a bendable straw. She had a feeling these comfort foods wouldn't do much for a seventeen-year-old who'd been attacked by a wild dog. But what were you supposed to offer your son in circ.u.mstances like this? A shot of straight whisky?

"I'm okay, Mom. The dog didn't even bite me," Corey said impatiently.

"They don't have to bite you to transmit rabies," put in his younger sister Hanny, sticking her head around the door behind her mother. "Did it drool on you or anything? Because drool can spread ra- 64 * Children of the Night bies, too. Like, if some saliva from a rabid animal mixes with your saliva, your chances of survival are-"

"That's enough from you, young lady," said Mrs. Ryan crossly. "It's almost ten-thirty. You should have been in bed ages ago. Asleep," she added, to forestall any chance of Hanny asking for a tray as well. "Now, scoot."