Poison Ivy

13.

Monday morning, I found Clark at his locker again. He looked unusually tired as I approached him. "Hey, Clark. Are you okay?" I asked, touching his cheek. He had huge bags under his eyes.

He yawned. "I didn't get much sleep last night. Mom was up all night crying."

"Why?'

"Cause she's pregnant and hormonal and wishes that her teenage daughter would come home." He snapped, then took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm sorry." He leaned against his locker. "What's up?"

"Have you talked to dad?"

He closed his eyes, then opened them back up slowly. "He wasn't having it. He said that the wolves needed to be taken care of, and that the hunting party was already organized for Saturday night."

"What?!" I gasped. The guys hadn't taken care of the skinwalkers last Friday night. So that meant they were still going to be there during the hunt. Despite my demands and relentless begging, they were still probably going to show up as wolves. What made things worse is that Badge believes that by the end of the week, there could be double the amount of skinwalkers than there are shapeshifters.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. Everyone's been really grouchy around the house. No one's been getting enough sleep and there's constant fighting and arguing."

"Not much different from when I was there." I muttered. "Has mom really been crying that much?" I felt bad. I know my mom understood why I made the decision to get out of the house for a while, but I hated hearing that she was so distraught over it.

He shrugged and gave another yawn. "That and there's been these weird noises at night that keeps waking everyone up."

This caught my attention. "Noises? What kind of noises?"

"I don't know. Like scratches or clawing along the side of the house. It's pretty creepy. Dad thinks it's just the trees brushing up against the house from the wind."

I froze. Scratches? "Yeah." I whispered. "It's probably just the trees." My throat felt all dry. "I have to go." I announced before rushing away. In my search for Badge through the hallways, I ran into Cree and Blaze instead.

"Whoa! What's up, Tatum?" Blaze asked, taking in my panicked face.

"The skinwalkers." I said, lowering my voice. "They've been at my house. I think they're after my family."

"Are you sure?" Cree questioned.

"Clark said he heard these scratches along the side of the house all night. I'm sure it's the same clawing that I heard. Only then I didn't know it was the skinwalkers." I licked my lips. "I thought they were after me. Why are they going after my family?"

"To make a point." Blaze answered, exchanging a look with Cree.

"I can't just sit here. My mom and my grandparents are home. If–"

"They wouldn't try anything in the daylight." Blaze shot down. "We'll set up a perimeter outside the house at night and make sure your family's safe."

"Blaze." I breathed. "You can't keep everyone safe."

"There's eleven of us." Cree reminded me. "We have numbers."

"So do they." I countered.

"We'll recruit more if we have to."

I raked a hand through my hair. "This is getting out of control."

Blaze placed a hand on my shoulder before stepping away. "No worries." He winked, and started to walk away.

Cree mimicked Blaze's movements. "Be happy."