Villainous by Matthew Cody Page A

gesture of her own, and pushed him forward.
    He had no choice but to let her follow, and the two of them crept slowly and silently through the garbage. Soon, they came upon a familiar bend in the twisting maze of trash, marked by the smashed-up remains of a truck that Clay and Bud used for target practice when they were bored. On the other side of it, if Daniel’s memory served, lay the van. They were close now, and the voices were clearer. Mollie crouched behind a pile of junk and put her finger to her lips, instructing Daniel to be quiet. As if he needed to be told.
    “See. What’d I tell ya?” Clay was saying in his gravelly voice. Over the summer it had gotten even deeper, and what little boyishness it had once possessed was gone entirely. It was a man’s voice now.
    “You dragged us all the way out to a junkyard for this?” said another boy, a new voice Daniel didn’t recognize. “Like I haven’t seen beer before.”
    “Well, we can hide all sorts of stuff here,” said Clay, sounding defensive. “It’s private.”
    “I’ll say. Who’d want to hang out here with all the rest of the garbage?” said another voice, a girl’s this time.
    “Yeah, well …,” answered Clay.
    Mollie turned back to Daniel. He could tell they were thinking the exact same thing.
    A girl
.
    “Hey,” said the boy. “Where’s the mutt? He go bounding off again?”
    “He was here a minute ago,” answered the girl. “Here, boy! Mutt, come!”
    Daniel tugged on Mollie’s sleeve and she glared at him, annoyed.
    They have a dog!
he mouthed.
Let’s go!
    She tugged her arm back out of his grip and mouthed something that looked like
Not till I pee
. Daniel was terrible at reading lips.
    But as she inched her head slowly toward the edge of the junk pile, he understood what she had been trying to say. She didn’t need to
pee;
she wanted to
see
who Clay was talking to. Whoever it was, they were just on the other side of the junk pile, and there was little chance of Daniel and Mollie looking without being spotted themselves. She’d been right at the start—they needed a better plan.
    Daniel reached for her arm once more, and again she tried to pull away but this time he refused to let go. They could circle around and get a look from the other side, where there was better cover. He needed her to listen to him.
    She glared back at him and if she could have told him off, she would have, Daniel knew. But then something changedin her face as she looked, not at Daniel, but past him. She grew wide-eyed with surprise, or even fear.
    When Daniel turned around, he was face to face with a boy a few years older than he, with dandruffy hair down to his shoulders, and pale, watery eyes. He was crouched in an almost feral position, perched on all fours atop the hood of the busted-up truck, and he looked ready to pounce. Though dressed in some kind of prep school outfit complete with blazer and tie, he was barefoot, his toenails long and yellow and sharp.
    The strange boy leaned forward until he was inches away from Daniel. His voice, when he spoke, was surprisingly quiet.
    “Bark, bark,” said the boy softly, and then he smiled, showing them stained, pointed teeth.

Chapter Six
The Nobles of Noble’s Green
    The strange long-haired boy herded Daniel and Mollie out of hiding until they were standing in front of a new boy, who appeared to be smoking—a cloud of white haze seemed to perpetually linger about the boy’s black-haired head—but he wasn’t holding a cigarette that Daniel could see. Maybe his eyes were playing tricks on him.
    “Guess we need some introductions, huh?” said the new boy. “I’m Drake, and you’ve already met Mutt. Must’ve smelled you two coming. Nose like a bloodhound, you know.”
    “Growl,” said a voice behind him, and Daniel peekedover his own shoulder to see Mutt crouched on the ground. Again, the boy named Mutt hadn’t actually growled, he’d just said the word
growl
. Weird.
    “Easy, boy,” said