Shadow of the Day (Wolf Moon Sequel)

Chapter 42: Victim

I sat on the floor for...I don't even know how long. My body trembled and my mind was spinning round and round, unable to fully accept what Devin had done. 

How could I have guessed he would do something like this? I should have tried harder to figure out his plan, to hunt him down when he said he was leaving town and see what he was up to and where he was supposedly going. I'd have known that he hadn't gone anywhere. He'd only killed himself and bided his time until the full moon allowed him to possess Joe. How could I have been so stupid? So naive?

I had to tell someone about Devin. Everyone. Including Ivy now...oh God. 

Don't think about that now. Start small.

Before I knew it, I was pulling my phone out of my pocket and dialing for Wyatt. He answered on the second ring, voice bright and happy. "Hey! I just dropped you off and you already miss me?"

"Wyatt." My voice cracked.

"Lila? What's wrong?" I could hear the frown in his voice, displacing the warmth immediately. It had been such a good day and now...

"Devin."

"Devin? What about Devin?" he asked immediately. "Is he back?"

"He..." somehow, it felt real now. Something in me cracked and I could feel a sob rising in my chest, a panic clawing its way through me to find a way out. "He's--he's--he jumped bodies."

There was a thud, like he dropped something. "What? Into who?"

"Joe." 

"Joe?" Wyatt didn't know who Joe was. Not exactly anyway. He had seen him around, but I had never told him who he was to Ivy, to me. I had thought it wouldn't have mattered, trying to protect Ivy's privacy, but clearly I had underestimated Devin.

"Ivy's biological father," I whispered, feeling the tears come.

"Her...? Shit. Hang on, I'm on my way," he said, sound crackling through the line now like he was moving quickly and dislodging his phone.

"No, don't! We're fine. He just left. We're going to have dinner now you don't need to come right this second. I just needed to...I just..." 

"Lila? Just breathe, okay? What do you want me to do? What do you need?"

"I don't-" I cut off, inhaling a sharp shaky breath. Rubbing at the tears in my eyes, I tried to compartmentalize. Ivy needed me right now so I could freak out later. We need a plan. "Can you--uh--can you call Natasha? Tell her what happened? She knows about Joe already, being Ivy's dad, I mean. Just...tell her what he did. I need to tell Matt and my Pack and figure this out."

"Of course. Call your Pack, go grab dinner, and I'll swing by after alright?" he said, voice soft. I had no idea how he was so calm, but it was helping me relax. If he wasn't freaking out then it wasn't that bad. I was just surprised, that's all. It had to be surprise. We could deal with this. 

"Okay," I said, but it came out a whisper. 

"It's going to be fine. We'll figure it out, Lila, I promise. We always do," he said, voice still gentle as ever. "We're far better prepared than ever before, okay?"

"I know, I..." Another breath. No. I couldn't get into it, not now. Right now, I needed to call Matt, go shower, and eat dinner with my family and pretend like nothing's wrong. "I'll see you later, okay? And be careful. We don't know what he's...just be careful."

"You too. See you soon," he said, sounding more somber now as he clicked off.

I didn't move from the floor, still not trusting myself to stand just yet. I dialed for Matt immediately. If I waited too long I'd start to lose it and right now I needed to keep my mind busy.

"Hey! I tried calling you before, but you didn't pick up," Matt said as soon as he answered.

"Why? What's wrong?" I asked, suddenly fearing the worst. Had Devin gotten to him while I was out hunting with Wyatt?

"Nothing! I wanted to check in and see how things were going, see if you had any updates."

"I do now. Devin's back," I said, voice flat and steady now. My brain had succeeded, somewhat anyway, in shutting down my panic. It was threatening to make an appearance, but if I was going to protect Ivy I needed to keep it together long enough to get a plan in place. I could have a breakdown after.

"What? Did he come after you? Are you and Ivy okay?"

"We're fine. He just surprised me that's all. Actually, he's..." I bit my lip, suddenly wondering if it was such a good idea to tell Matt this over the phone. "He jumped into Joe's body."

There was such a long silence on the other end of the line that I was certain something awful was happening.

"Matt? Matt, are you still there?" I clutched my phone. "We're both fine, he didn't do anything. He already left. I swear."

There came a slow, long, exhale. Then finally "Okay."

"Okay?" I echoed, confused and a bit surprised. He was taking this much better than I expected.

"Okay. What do we do now?" There was a tightness to his voice, a restrained anger that had me worried. 

"Right now we need to tell everyone. Wyatt is going to call Natasha for me to let her know and I was hoping you could pass the word along to Mirah, Dakota, and Jared. I'm supposed to be down for dinner in a few minutes and--" I cut myself off before I admitted that I wasn't sure I could repeat the story several more times without losing it. Matt needed me to be calm; if I started freaking out then he would freak out too and that wouldn't help anybody.

"Done. And after that?" 

"After that we'll come up with a plan," I said, sounding far more confident than I felt. It sounded so easy, but there was a complexity to the situation now. If Devin had jumped into someone else's body it would have been easier to handle. But it was Ivy's dad. We couldn't just kill him. And Devin knew it. He knew it all along that this was his ticket to--

No. Don't go there. Not now. 

"How are you doing?" 

"I don't know. But Ivy's fine and that's all I care about. Are you okay?"

"I'm...not happy. But I'm trying to keep cool," he said, and again, I could hear it in his voice. 

"Good. Thank you," I said, genuinely appreciating that he was making the effort to keep his composure instead of flying into a full on anger-fest. Hell, he didn't even comment on Wyatt talking to Natasha. 

"Does Ivy know?" 

"No. She doesn't know anything."

He got quiet then and I knew we were both thinking the same thing. We were going to have to tell her, sooner rather than later.

Matt broke the silence first. "I'll make those calls now and get in touch with you later. If you need anything though, just call me. My phone volume is turned up all the way so I'll hear it, even if it's the middle of the night."

"Okay. Thanks, Matt. I will," I said, feeling my eyes burn again, but this time was gratitude and not terror. We said our goodbyes and hung up, and I let myself have a minute more on the floor. 

Was this an awful situation? Yes.

But I had my Pack with me, Wyatt, and Natasha. We knew what we were doing this time. I wasn't alone and we actually had experience with this type of situation; this wasn't going to be the same as it was with Caleb. We could figure this out.