Bon appetite!
May the Best Man Win
Chapter Ten
HAYLEY
The truck wobbled when Jackson hopped into the backseat. Hayley glanced at the rearview mirror – and saw nothing but fur.
"Jackson, could you please, umm…" she bit her lip in thought, "duck?"
The wolf clambered over a pile of jackets that had accumulated in Hayley's backseat, perpetually "on the way to the dry cleaner's."
Hayley peaked back to see the wolf squashed between the cushions and the clothes, doing his best not to block the view. She balked, contorting her lips closed and trying not to laugh.
"Cramped much?" she teased and turned forward, starting the car with a flip of her wrist on the keys, "You know you can sit on floor if you can fit."
She glimpsed at the rearview mirror and could see from the bulge of Jackson's yellow eyes that her suggestion was happily declined.
"Suit yourself," she mumbled and drove out of the vampire compound. The further down they drove along the grey cement, the smaller the compound became – at first it loomed like a hovering shadow, familiar but menacing, and then it merely peaked up from the horizon as little more than a speck. Every time she made that drive, it was like she was shedding all the shackles of this new life thrust upon her.
Her breaths lightened as she could feel the weight lift from her shoulders. By now, she could not even see it – there wasn't the least sign of anything behind her. Then she looked forward at vast expanse before her – nothing but bayou.
"We're almost there…" she said softly, more to herself than anyone else.
—
The truck drove up to the shantytown, a myriad of trailers, RVs, and improvised lean-tos splattered haphazardly between walls of swampy reeds in the last thin strip of dry land for miles. As the dust receded away from the car, Hayley could see her witch doctor – with a variety of friends and relatives all carrying pots and pans of herby stews in preparation for the upcoming celebrations. A fire was roaring in the middle of the camp, and the bustling of the witches clustered around its glowing heat as dusk quickly approached.
Hayley gave a reluctant sigh as she left the car, holding the door for Jackson to jump out after her. The energy around the campfire bloomed with energy as the wolf pack pranced around in play stances. Hayley gazed at the camp and forced a smile when her witch doctor beckoned her over.
"You ready, girl?"
"Damn right, Shela!" Hayley said to the witch doctor Shela, who stood casting herbs into the fire that made the flames flare greedily.
"Do you have the cure?" said Shela, gesturing to her friends. Two old women, similar in shape and size to Shela, rolled over a large wheeled cauldron with a boiling stew.
"Who are all these people?" said Hayley, handing Shela a thermos filled with Celeste's cure for the Crescent Wolf Curse. As she did this, she glanced curiously at the women rolling the cauldron and then at all the others buzzing round, pulling up improvised wooden poles to form tents and placing out folding chairs.
"Oh, these're my baby sistahs!" Shela crowed, taking the thermos while slapping an old woman closest to her warmly on the back, "Hey babies! You meet Hayley?"
"We have now!" one old woman said with a wink to Hayley, "How you doin', honey?"
"I'm good – it's very nice to meet you!" Hayley stretched out a hand over the pot. She could feel the rising heat as each woman shook her hand.
"Don't you worry, sugar, you're in good hands with Shela!" said one woman, nudging an elbow into Shela's side, "I'm the crazy one of the family! She's the good one!"
"You can say that again!" Shela said with an exaggerated wag of her head.
"Ha ha," Hayley chuckled and then scanned over the crowd around her, "So are all these people your relatives?"
As she turned around to behold the growing preparations for what was doubtless going to be a night-long celebration, she had her back to the others as she heard gentle steps thud across the grass behind her.
"What, these boys my relatives?" Shela cackled, "Oh no, that's not on me! That's on him!"
"Who?" Hayley said, turning back around.
She gasped, leaping back a step and throwing up her hands in fists in a fighting stance. In an instant, she saw her hands in front of her, and her cheeks burned red. She hid them behind her back and then quickly fidgeting moved them back in front until they rested on her round belly.
"Klaus," she snipped and said nothing more.
Klaus stood staring at her with his head in a tilt and his eyes widely watching her, taking in her every movement as she embarrassed herself more and more. Instantly, she stared at the ground to shrug off the weight of his gaze, but she knew he was still looking. She began to lift her eyes – and then walked up a young man with short cropped blonde hair and a necklace hanging over his shirt with a ring on the bottom of the loop.
"It's nice to meet you, ma'am. I've heard a lot about you!" he said cheerfully thrusting out a hand, "I'm Cary."
Taken by surprise, Hayley immediately looked up at Cary's face and frowned at him confusedly. Cary bunched his lips when he saw her hesitation and let his hand dangle awkwardly in the air, waiting.
Klaus bent forward a little, "Come, love, don't be rude."
Hayley ignored him and without delay, reached out and shook Cary's hand.
"Sorry about that!" she said, "Hi, Cary, nice to meet you. I'm sorry, I'm all thumbs today."
"Don't worry about it," Cary said with a shrug, "I hear you need a little help with your family today?"
He walked over to the cauldron besides Shela and her sisters; Hayley walked with him, her gaze following Klaus as he began to amble away to the other end of the camp.
"So…" Hayley said, glancing briefly back to Cary as she planted her feet by his side, "when did you get here?"
"Oh just a couple hours ago," said Cary, tapping Shela on the shoulder and taking a spoon from her so he could mix the stew in the pot, "I came along with Shela."
"So when did, um –" Hayley started and stopped as she saw Klaus walk over to a group of wolves, kneeling down and stroking their necks as if they were his life-long pets.
Cary followed Hayley's gaze and smiled back at her.
"He came with. He coordinated it all. I'm sorry, it was all my doing," Cary explained as he mixed the stew, "I hope we're not imposing – I heard about your pack and I felt, I don't know, compelled to help."
Hayley raised a brow at that word.
"So I thought I'd come out, and well, I mentioned it to Klaus," Cary went on merrily stirring, chatting away whether she heard him or not, "And that's when he said he thought it would go faster with more people here. The more hands, the quicker they all get the cure, right?"
"Right…" Hayley nodded offhandedly.
Shela walked up to the edge of the pot with her sisters in tow, all of them holding piles of bowls.
"Hey, honeys, c'mon now!" Shela chirped, nodding up at a sudden gust rushing through with the movement of the dark purple clouds over the night sky, "you see that wind? Those clouds'll be gone before long and you know what that means? The full moon will be out! So hop to it! Let's get that cure in them furry bellies!"
Shela stuck out a bowl in front of Cary, and scooping up a spoonful, Cary poured some of the mixture into a bowl. Hayley came up to Shela and took the bowls from her, and with that Shela left to attend to other things.
As Hayley stuck out another bowl, Cary locked eyes with her while pouring another scoop.
"Is she always like that?" he said.
Hayley nodded with a grin, "Yuuup!"
—
They had taken shifts: Cary, Hayley, and then one or the other of Shela's sisters – and then back to the start. Before long, Hayley found herself volunteering when the others took breaks until she realized Cary was gone and then, one of the sisters was gone, too.
They were near the end now, though. Shela's sister handed over one last bowl, and with one final dip, scoop, pour, pass – the last of the pack got their draught of the cure. It was only time to wait now for the moon to shine.
Hayley wiped her hands together with a feeling of accomplishment and looked around, hoping to find someone with commiserate over a long day's work. Jackson – he had a coat as grey as the rest of them and she doubt if she could ever find him lost amid the pack. She turned her gaze further still and then saw Cary at the opposite end of the camp, slinking between two trailer parks. She narrowed her eyes and noticed that Klaus was walking beside him – and in between the two of them was a wolf trotting beside their knees.
She took a step forward, ready to investigate, when she felt someone take her hand and squeeze. She looked over to see it was Shela's sister, gazing with mouth ajar at the clouds. With one last gust, they moved aside and all the wolves looked up at the moonlight. They tilted back their head and howled loudly; and as the moonbeams cast over them their long canine heads transformed and then their bodies and then in an instant, they were all human again.
A wave of relief billowed over the camp and smiles clung to all their faces as Klaus's workers immediately approached the Crescent Wolf members, handing out clothes and food as needed.
"It's a miracle!" exclaimed Shela's sister, releasing Hayley's hand. Hayley returned her hand to her stomach and pat at her belly with a hesitant frown on her nose.
"I'm not holding my breath," she said and when she saw the woman's surprise she explained.
"This doesn't mean anything," she said, "We still have to wait to see if they transform back once the moon sets."
"Well, then," said Shela's sister with a devilish twinkle in her eye, "until then – let's eat!"
Then, whether Hayley willed it or not, Shela's sister dragged her off toward a pavilion in the midst of the folded chairs where all the wolf pack had gathered. It was the middle of the night – and the party had just begun.
—
Eating and drinking – that's what made them merry and despite herself, Hayley was in the middle of it. She refused to dance, positively, until a burly old Crescent pulled her into a two-step and refused to let go until she did the chicken dance. She relented – she ducked and pecked and squawked – and then in shame slinked back into a corner of the tent to catch a breath, leaning on a table. A passerby handed her drink and with one sip she realized it was beer.
"Oh, snap!" she said, "Anyone got a ginger ale?"
Nothing.
Hayley sucked in a breath, a tad disgruntled and then approached a buffet table, roving around in search of some sort of a punch – that hadn't been spiked in way or another.
"Aha!" she said, seizing in hand a plain cup of soda, but by now she had wandered into the thick of a crowd. Everyone stood closely together, soaking in one another's body heat and talking loudly if only to be louder to the conversation next to them. She tried to sidle her way through the crowd, holding over her head that one teetotaler drink available to her.
"Look!" someone shouted from the crowd pointing outside, and as they all moved together to look outside the tent, she was able to make one last ditch effort to scoot to the edge of the crowd.
"The sun's up!" someone else shouted. Everyone cheered, throwing their hands in the air.
"Drinks all around!" yelled out a voice and everyone shouted gleefully once more, "Cheers!"
Hayley smiled, brandishing her little glass cup of Coke, ready to clink it, but the crowd had scooted her out. She turned to her right – no one, and then turning to her left, a glass reached out to hers.
Clink!
She looked up.
"Congratulations," said Klaus, in a subdued voice, blank-faced, "It makes me happy to see you get your family back…"
"You don't look happy…" Hayley whispered, licking her lips.
"You got your family back, love," Klaus said, "that means you got her family back."
He looked down to Hayley's stomach, and then leaning over, he pecked her on the cheek.
"Cheers!" he said, lifting his glass and taking a swig. She made no response and stood frozen until he walked away wordlessly.
She stayed there a moment, sipping at her drink, until she saw Jackson come up to her.
"Hey," she said weakly.
"It's great isn't it?" Jackson boomed, looking over all his friends with the excitement glinting in the balls of his eyes.
"Yeah," Hayley shrugged and stood in a quiet pause.
"Y'know, I'm sorry if he's being an ass," she said.
Jackson frowned at her.
"Klaus," she explained with another sip of her soda, "I noticed that he's been bothering you all evening. I know how he can be – he likes to hand out threats like Halloween candy sometimes."
Jackson raised a brow, "I can't speak to that. He's just been talking is all – me and him and his cousin, Cary."
"What do you mean?" Hayley frowned in disbelief.
Jackson shrugged, "I mean what I mean."
Hayley sighed, both with relief and weariness over the long night, "I gotta say – I'm surprised."
"Really?" Jackson tilted his head, "Why's that?"
Hayley stared blankly and said nothing. She realized, then, that for the first time in her life, she couldn't think of a bad thing to say about Klaus in that moment.