Monsters Are Forever

13. Werewolf-Repellant

Mia walked into class trying her best to act casual. She knew she'd already told her friends that she'd finally found a way to lose Rudi when she went out at night, but of course that hadn't exactly been true. She'd given them both the distinct impression that she'd gone out the night before last, and everything was alright. Of course Rudi had been there. And she was there again last night too. It was starting to look like Mia really couldn't go out on her own anymore.

She'd been trying to hide it, but apparently she wasn't as subtle as she thought; her little stunt at the movies had been reported in the papers. And of course, Anna had read all about it. Mia had actually forgotten that Anna read the papers. It wasn't something Mia ever bothered to do, so she didn't really think about it. And when Anna read that article about a girl being found at the exact time they were all there, she'd known for sure what had happened.

Anna didn't actually tell Mia she knew, but it was pretty clear she did. Mia was just glad Anna didn't say it out loud; she was feeling bad enough about that without having it pointed out to her. At least Mia was pretty sure Anna hadn't actually told anyone else about it. So now, everyone thought she was fine, except for Anna who probably thought Mia was incompetent. Mia decided that enough was enough. She was going to have to figure out how to finally get rid of Rudi. And there was only one person Mia knew who could possibly know the answer to that.

She really hated to bring it up, especially at school. But she didn't know what else to do. She'd already had to have her friends come with her twice, and she really couldn't afford to make that a habit. For one, it made her feel useless – not to mention the obvious burden it was on her friends. Especially when they had to do all the work and she just showed up and took what she needed. Besides, sooner or later, Rudi was going to remember Anna and Carmine being there. And that would just make everything worse. Mia couldn't afford for Rudi to suspect her friends too. The only chance she had was to find something to repel Rudi.

"Hey, Carmine, can I ask you something?" Mia leaned over in her chair.

She really didn't want to have to bring this kind of thing up in the middle of class, but it was better than waiting for lunch. At least here, she could keep it somewhat secret. And there was no way she could ask this kind of thing with any of the boys around. She figured there was no way they'd ever understand – it would just be too personal.

"Yeah, what's up?" Carmine asked. When she saw the look on Mia's face, she lowered her voice. "What's wrong?"

"Well...you know how vampires don't like garlic?" Mia asked slowly, trying to ease her way into it.

"Yeah, why?" Carmine wanted to know, eyes narrowing.

"Well, is there anything like that for werewolves?" she asked, leaning closer.

It wasn't the most subtle question she'd ever asked, but she was getting desperate. Actually, she was kind of impressed with how smooth she'd managed to make it, considering she felt like she was going to scream. The stress of always seeing Rudi and the fact that she still couldn't lose her was really starting to take its toll on her.

"What? Like something to make them sick?" Carmine sounded like she knew she must have heard wrong.

"No – more like something to keep them from coming around." Mia said. Although, it might be nice to make Rudi sick. "I guess sick would be alright too...as long as it meant they'd stay away."

"...Is everything alright?" Carmine asked after a minute.

"Yeah, it's fine."

Mia wished Carmine wouldn't ask her so many questions, especially since she wasn't exactly in the best shape to be coming up with excuses anyway; she was just a little too stressed to be able to come up with something plausible at the moment.

"Is Zev bothering you?" Carmine asked slowly, her concern obvious.

"What?" Mia blinked. "No, why?"

"If he is, you can tell me – I won't say anything if you don't want." Carmine placed her hand reassuringly on Mia's shoulder.

"What are you talking about? Why would you think I had a problem with Zev?" Mia asked. Actually, their relationship was one of the few areas in her life where she wasn't having a problem at the moment.

"Well, if you need something to get rid of werewolves..." Carmine said slowly. "I mean, he is a werewolf..."

"I said he's fine." Mia snapped.

"So why do you need to know then?"

"Just in case?" Mia really hated to admit that she hadn't been able to take care of Rudi yet; the only thing worse than lying to her friends was admitting that she'd lied.

Carmine folded her arms over her chest and didn't say anything.

"For Rudi." Mia mumbled finally.

"She's still bugging you?" Carmine asked, eyes wide.

"Yeah. I just can't get rid of her." Which was exactly the reason Mia hoped to repel her. Wasn't Carmine following this?

"So you're going to try and keep Rudi away?"

"Yeah. At least at night." Mia shrugged, trying to act like it wasn't a potentially stupid plan.

"You don't think she'll get suspicious?" Carmine asked.

"I think she's already suspicious." Mia told her. Wasn't that why she'd been stalking Mia in the first place?

"I know she's suspicious of you." Carmine said. "That's obvious. But don't you think it could be worse if she starts thinking you know about her too?"

"What else am I supposed to do?" Mia said a little harsher than she'd meant. This whole not being able to go out at night problem was really getting to her. She took a breath to calm down. "Besides, maybe if she thinks I'm getting suspicious of her, she'll leave me alone."

"And she won't blame Zev?" Carmine asked.

"Why would she?" And why would Carmine care? Wasn't she asking if Zev was bothering her like three minutes ago?

Mia didn't like how hard this conversation was for her to follow. This was exactly why she needed to get rid of Rudi; once she did that she could finally get enough blood on a consistent basis to think straight. Going out once a week was really messing with her brain. She found herself suddenly wishing she hadn't promised Anna that she wouldn't attack anyone in the middle of the day anymore.

"Well, who else would have told you about her?" Carmine asked.

"Maybe you did." Mia shrugged.

"Me?" Carmine blinked. "How would I know?"

"You're good at figuring things like that out, right? Or maybe I figured this one out on my own."

"I guess." Carmine mumbled, turning back to her desk.

"Wait." Mia said. "You never answered my question."

Carmine thought for a minute, but she still looked doubtful.

"If I can't get rid of her...things are only going to get worse." Mia said quietly.

"How so?" Carmine asked. "I mean, how much worse can they get?"

"You know, this whole going out only once a week isn't really working, right?" Mia asked. Carmine might not have been doing this for a very long time, but even she had to know why that was a problem, right?

"Is that all you do?"

"Yeah. And it's ok to keep from, you know..." Mia trailed off. She really didn't want to have to say the word die about herself. After a minute, she continued. "It's not a long-term thing."

Carmine nodded, thinking. Finally she looked up at Mia.

"You can try mistletoe." Carmine said slowly. "I hear it works, but I'm not positive. Give me a little bit to confirm it."

"Ok." Mia nodded.

She really didn't want to have to wait, but if it meant that she'd have something that would definitely work, who was she to argue? She was just glad she didn't have to do the research on it. Good thing Carmine liked making those trips to the library – or wherever she went to find these things out.