A Grave Problem

26. Luke's Threat

Mia managed to avoid talking to either Zev or Luke for a little over two weeks. But since Anna was still talking to Luke, Mia hadn't been able to cut him out completely. He'd asked Anna if they could meet up after school to discuss the banshees. Of course, Anna had said yes. Mia didn't want to go, but she couldn't think of a way to get out of it. There was no way to back out of looking for the banshees; her friends would be suspicious and she'd have to contend with Summer. And trying to keep Luke from tagging along would cause at least as many problems. So here she was, meeting up with Anna, Carmine and Luke to figure out when they were going to catch the banshees.

Mia was more nervous than she wanted to admit, but at least her friends would be there. That was something, right?

When he saw her, Luke smiled disinterestedly. He wasn't hostile by any means, but he wasn't particularly friendly, either. Not that Mia had expected him to be nice to her; she had been going out of her way to avoid him for the past two weeks.

"So when are we going to meet up to try to track down this...thing?" Luke asked.

"Banshee." Carmine said automatically. "And there's more than one."

"Really?" he asked. "How many are there?"

"There's three."

"How do you know that?" Mia asked before she could stop herself. She hadn't planned on really taking part in this discussion, but this piece of information caught her off guard. Mia'd seen two banshees, but this third one was news.

"I talked to Summer earlier this week." Carmine said, shrugging.

"Oh..." It had never occurred to Mia that anyone would actually talk to Summer.

"So when are we going to meet up to find them?" Luke asked. Mia thought he was struggling to keep his expression neutral.

"How about the Sunday after this one?" she responded in a tone that was just a little too sweet. She glanced over at Luke to see what his reaction would be. His eyes flashed, and Mia thought she saw his lip curl slightly before he regained control of himself.

"I can't do it next Sunday." he said testily. Neither Anna nor Carmine seemed to notice his tone, however.

"Why not?" Anna asked innocently. She seemed somewhat disappointed. Mia felt a little bad that she was trying to keep Luke from hanging out with them, especially in a situation where they probably could use his help. But what could she do? It was for the best anyway; who knew what kind of trouble they could get into if they had a werewolf with them!

"I have...family plans that day."

It sounded incredibly fake to Mia, but that was probably because she knew the truth – there was a full moon next Sunday. There was no way Luke would be able to join them.

Normally, Mia would have never baited Luke like that, but she just couldn't help it. By now, she'd been avoiding him and Zev for long enough that she was pretty sure they knew it was her they'd seen. And while it did seem like both of them were paying a little too much attention to her, neither looked like they were going to physically hurt her. Mia would have been perfectly happy with this and would have just continued on, pretending like she didn't know anything. But Luke and his friends were dangerous – everything she'd heard about werewolves said that they'd attack anyone on sight during a full moon, even if it was a friend or family member. She really didn't want that kind of liability around when they were trying to do this. If they failed, there was a very good chance Summer would expose them; they didn't need any extra complications around right now.

Of course, there was another reason Mia had tried to purposefully exclude Luke from their plans – she was angry. Zev had been trying to talk to her almost every single day since she'd seen him in the woods. It was nice of him and all, but after he'd tried to kill her, Mia just didn't feel like speaking to him anymore. She still liked him, sure – when he was human. But it didn't matter how much she liked him, she couldn't be around someone who could try to kill her like that. Dealing with Zev had been hard enough. But now that it felt like Luke was stalking her in English too, it was getting to be more than Mia could take. It seemed like everywhere she turned, there was someone trying to talk to her, to make her face something she'd really rather pretend wasn't there. So when she saw a chance to at least eliminate one of her problems, she took it. Unfortunately, Mia's victory was short-lived.

"Well, what about this weekend then?" Carmine suggested pragmatically. "Waiting until the week after seems kind of like a long time anyway."

"This weekend would be great." Luke said, smiling appreciatively at Carmine. "How's Saturday sound?"

"Works for me." Carmine said.

"Saturday's fine." Anna told them.

Mia just nodded, trying not to show her disappointment.

"I'll read up on banshees a little more, but I don't think we're going to have too much of a problem." Carmine told everyone. "They don't seem all that dangerous, so the hardest part looks like it's going to be catching them before they disappear. We'll go over everything on Saturday afternoon real quick though. Ok?"

Everyone agreed and decided to meet up at Anna's place before they set out. Mia had thought about suggesting somewhere else; she just didn't think it was a very good idea for Luke to see where Anna lived. But Mia couldn't think of a better place. Besides, Luke actually liked Anna. If they had to give one of their addresses to a werewolf, she was obviously going to be the safest out of any of them.

Once the plan was decided, there wasn't much more to do. Mia turned and started walking towards the cafeteria, planning on cutting through and heading towards the bus stop. She was just inside the cafeteria doors when Luke caught up to her. Grabbing her firmly by the arm, he guided her back around to face him.

He looked at her, his eyes burning. Mia didn't think she'd ever seen him look so angry.

"I don't know what it is exactly that you think happened, but I didn't do anything to you. So I'd really like it if you'd stop." He said it in a way that made it clear it was more than just a request. Menacingly, he leaned closer and whispered into her ear, "Don't mess with me."

Mia leaned her head back just enough to be able to look him in the face – not enough to look like she could be backing down in any way. She was sorry if she'd hurt his feelings, but there was no way she was going to let him intimidate her. She deliberately disengaged her arm from his grip and stared levelly at him.

"And you," she told him coldly, "do not bully me."