The Black Wolves of Boston (eARC)

by Wen Spencer

  "No. He's perfectly healthy, just very confused. He had questions about being a werewolf that Decker didn't know the answers to. I have to admit bringing Joshua to me showed a great deal of intelligence. I spent the night reading up infection vectors. From what I can tell, Joshua could bite the man without fear of creating a feral. The original bite that made Decker a vampire acts as a vaccine against the magic of the werewolf bite. Texts also suggest that Decker has a healing ability on par with a werewolf."

  The fire was out at Decker's house with the exception of a small hibachi in the driveway: the apparent source of the flames. Joshua was wrangling a kitten that was trying to steal Joshua's breakfast. That the kitten was still alive spoke volumes of Joshua's control of his temper.

  "How safe is Joshua to the general populace?" Seth asked. "We normally isolate newborns until they have control of their wolf."

  "He's a sweet little puppy," Dr. Huff fell into the voice she used with her patients. "A very good boy. No snarling. No nipping." Her tone went back to pure business, which meant the news was not all good. "But he's resisting integrating with the wolf. He sees it as a dangerous separate being. He's managed to keep it in check for several days, which is impressive, but it's going to lead to more trouble down the road. He won't be able to stay human under stress. The more times he loses control to the wolf, the harder it will get to regain power. It's a cascading problem."

  "I know."

  "The Grigori keep a strong presence in Boston. They'll be closer to him than you. And if he loses it badly enough, they will consider him feral."

  "I know."

  She was calling Seth because he was the Prince of Boston. By the Wolf King's law, puppies were the responsibility of the alpha whose territory they were in. It didn't matter that Joshua was a year older than Seth. Dr. Huff was well aware that if Joshua was a very strong dominant connected to the Boston Source, there wasn't anyone but Seth that could control him.

  "I'm dealing with a disaster," Seth explained. "The king is in Belgrade. The Marquis of Albany was killed by the Wickers. I'm sitting on his heir until I'm sure he's safe."

  "Oh gods," she whispered, clearly shocked. "I understand. You're needed there. I think Jack would be fine, if there isn't a dominance issue. From what I can determine, Joshua is a strong dominant. I would advise against sending a random Thane to deal with Joshua; most are going to be too heavy-handed to deal with a puppy that wasn't raised by your people. Scaring him will only make the wolf more unmanageable for him."

  At the moment, the only Thanes available were Isaiah and his lackeys. Seth didn't want any of them in the same state as his brother.

  "I'll come to Boston as soon as I can," Seth promised. Somehow.

  "He should be safe with Decker," Dr. Huff said. "The vampire might not know how to raise a puppy, but he's a powerful ancient creature. The Wickers will not cross him lightly, even if they knew where to find him. I've been royal vet for ten years and I only know Decker's place is somewhere in Cambridge. It's one of the better kept secrets in Boston."

  He, Jack and the handful of others had been told the location of Decker's residence because they were possible heirs. His father hadn't shared the information beyond that. Seth knew that the decision wasn't easy for other people to understand. Dr. Huff was one of the outsiders that they rarely kept secrets from. With Joshua as her only patient beyond Seth, she probably expected to be told his street address.

  Dr. Huff wasn't immune to the Wicker's powers. It was one of the reasons she wasn't told in the first place.

  "Since Decker submitted to my grandfather's rule, he is considered under our protection. Something like him could only be safe if his resting place is kept secret. The question is: would the Wickers have to fight him to gain Joshua?"

  "I believe so. He seems genuinely fond of the boy." She hesitated before adding, "Your grandfather mentioned once to my predecessor that he found Decker 'comfortable' to be around, thus the reason he allowed the vampire to stay in Boston. There seems to be a universal compatibility there. The polarity of magic attracts, not repels."

  It would explain the massive cleaning and painting Joshua was doing at Decker's house. Vampires didn't use kitchens but growing puppies did. Ignorant of all things related to werewolves, Joshua wouldn't realize he couldn't stay with Decker.

  "Okay, I'll..." The restaurant door banged open and people came screaming out. "Shit!" Seth hung up without saying goodbye. He shoved his way through the flood of humans. What the hell happened while he was gone? He could hear the loud growling and snarling of a large upset wolf.

  The Three Musketeers were standing back, staring at their booth, as it shook and quivered.

  "What the hell is going on?" Seth roared.

  "Ewan's stuck," Cameron said.

  "What do you mean he's stuck?" Seth peered under the table.

  The massive wolf wedged upside down in the tight space peered back. "Help."

  "He was asking about the black dog at the house. We told him that we were all werewolves including him...."

  "Oh God, no, you shouldn't have told him that! Not here!" But they had. Seth knew from experience that the natural reaction to being told you were a werewolf was to see if you could transform into a wolf. The only puzzling part was how Ewan ended up wedged under the table, upside down. "How did you...? Never mind." Seth grabbed the edge of the table and ripped it from the steel posts.

  "Our food!" all four cousins cried as Seth flung the table aside.

  "We're leaving!" Seth caught Ewan by the ruff of his neck and pulled him to his feet. "Be human!"

  "I don't know how to...omph!" He turned into a man as Seth forced his wolf back into the Source. "Oh, this is how I ended up naked in Utica!"

  "Yes." Seth pulled off his shirt and put it on Ewan. "Cameron, you're driving. You other two, clear a path. Nothing stops us."

  Out they went, a hopefully unstoppable juggernaut, as the police cars came screaming into the parking lot.

  31: Joshua

  The charcoal lit.

  The fire put out.

  The kitten fed.

  While he was waiting for the charcoal to be ready, the whole "clothes were someplace else while he was puppy" started to creep him out. They smelled. Not in a horrible stinky way. The scent reminded him of dried leaves and sunshine. It made him think of his backyard on a warm afternoon during the autumn. Normally he'd find it a pleasant smell.

  He'd taken clean clothes out of his mom's dryer, put them into his backpack and left home. They should smell of soap and dryer sheets and his sweat. Until he started to turn into a wolf, they had.

  Once he thought about it, he started to imagine monster fleas and ticks crawling around on his back, or something worse. Something weird and alien. Flesh-eating mold. He decided that it was time to change into his new clothes.

  Decker had bought a trashcan for the bathroom but not Joshua's bedroom. His new clothes created a ton of litter that the kitten thought made great toys. Bags from the underwear. Tags from the shirts. Weird stickers on the jeans. The kitten tried eating the plastic bits and pieces. Joshua shoved all the litter into one of the Target shopping bags and added trashcan to his list of things he still needed.

  His new clothes felt scratchy and stiff, especially the underwear. He decided to wash everything he wasn't wearing. Decker mentioned that he had a washing machine in a laundry room off the kitchen. Joshua kept dropping clothes as he carried them downstairs. When he bent over to pick the fallen item up, something else would tumble to the ground. It threatened to turn into an endless bad juggling act. Seriously, he needed a laundry basket before started wolfing out and sending his new clothes to the mystery forest.

  He put his clothes on the kitchen island, added laundry basket to his list and played "what's behind this door" to find said washer.

  Washing machine.

  Decker had to be joking. He used that? It looked like some kind of medieval torture device. No, not using that.

  Dryer.


  Decker's boxers were hanging on the clothesline that was strung up higher than Joshua could reach. No. Just no.

  Laundromat. Even if Decker bought a new washer and dryer, Joshua still would need clean clothes long before the machines showed up. Surely with Harvard and MIT nearby, there were coin laundries. He carried his new clothes back upstairs for safe keeping in his room, growling.

  Luckily, it stopped raining. The coals were ready for the steaks. He put the meat on the hot grill and prowled around the yard, making notes.

  Rake. Extension ladder. Work gloves. Weedeater.

  Decker's house wasn't the only one on the block with a tower and attic windows and all sorts of old gothic vibes. His place, though, was the only one that looked Addams Family spooky. Everyone said that Decker's home was safe because it was warded, but the Wickers probably only had to look at it to know a vampire lived there. The entire house needed to be painted. The leaves raked. The gutters cleaned out. The weeds trimmed.

  A yard gnome would help brighten up the place and make it a little less suspicious. Maybe more than one. An entire mob of yard gnomes, glaring at people as they passed by. "Move along, nothing weird here to see."

  Okay, maybe gnomes wouldn't help. Joshua crossed them off his list. He'd have to see what the hardware store had to make the house more welcoming.

  He flipped the steaks and argued with the wolf. "Wait! Wait! You're as bad as the cat! I don't want the meat raw and cold in the middle! I don't care that you don't care! We're eating them medium rare! I have better things to do than to stand here fighting with you! I should be figuring out what the ghost meant. I should be trying to figure out if my dream meant anything important."

  He should have talked to Decker about the ghost.

  They'd gotten a lot of work done the night before, all while carefully avoiding any conversation about what had happened between Decker and the wolf. Instead they talked about the world at large.

  Decker proved to be woefully ignorant about almost everything about modern-day life. He lost contact with the world shortly after he moved in. The ancient television they'd unearthed and hauled to the dumpster had died in the late sixties. The dozens of magazine titles trickled to a stop by the seventies. The mountain of newspapers gave out a decade later. Even the junk mail started to peter off as the world moved on to spam emails.

  Decker knew nothing about computers or the Internet or even how his cell phone worked beyond accepting incoming calls. The microwave utterly mystified him.

  More alarming, his mailbox---a rusted out tin box sitting on the front porch---had been stuffed full with utility shutoff notices. Nothing had been paid since August.

  "Saul had someone that he trusted to pay those things," Decker explained. "I think he died. Everything just stopped being taken care of. That usually means the person doing it died." Decker sighed and added wistfully, "It happens more often than I like to admit."

  Luckily buried in among the magazines and newspaper was enough bank account information that Joshua was able to set up online payments for the gas, electric, and water before they could be turned off. He needed to go to the bank and deposit more money before the next month's bills were due.

  Decker needed him. It was becoming more and more obvious. Technology had outstripped the vampire's knowledge. Nor could Decker take care of the outside of the house during the night; it would draw too much attention. Paying someone else to take care of the yard work required someone awake during normal business hours. Everything from arranging for the dumpster delivery the day before to depositing money into Decker's bank account needed someone like Joshua to deal with it.

  But it was more than that. Decker seemed positively fragile emotionally since the feeding. He broke down weeping twice. The first time while Joshua was playing the 45 record of "Stay." Joshua wasn't sure what triggered Decker the second time; he glanced over to discover the vampire wiping tears off his face. It was for Decker's sake more than Joshua's that they danced all around the issue.

  Would Decker really kill himself? The layers of clutter spoke volumes on how apathetic the vampire had become over the years. In all the chaos, there had been no sign of any other people. When had Elise's grandfather died? Did the hoarding start with Saul's death? How long had Decker been alone? Thirty years? Forty?

  Sometime while Joshua was distracted thinking about Decker, the wolf got the steaks off the grill, into the house, and eaten one. The kitten was lapping up the bloody juices from his plate.

  "Oh geeezzz! Both of you are nothing but trouble."

  He gave the plate to the kitten to finish and got out a clean one. After the second New York strip steak, Joshua felt a great deal saner.

  Cat litter. Cat food. Cat dish. Cat everything. Assuming that Decker would let him keep the kitten.

  It was one thing to paint the kitchen without talking to Decker. If the vampire really cared what color the walls were, he would have painted years ago. It was quite another thing to bring an animal into the house. (A second animal into the house if you counted the wolf.) His parents' cat, Charmin, was actually Bethy's, but she couldn't take him to college with her.

  Joshua really would like to keep the kitten. A pet implied a certain permanency.

  Considering Decker's state of mind last night, he would probably agree to anything to keep Joshua from leaving. Somehow that didn't make Joshua feel better.

  * * *

  Still need: doorbell.

  Winnie stood on the porch when Joshua opened the front door to leave for the hardware store. She squeaked in alarm and danced backwards. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I rang the doorbell!"

  "You did?" Joshua pushed the button a couple of times. Nothing. There could be several things wrong with it, but since it was half a century old, he might as well replace as many pieces as he could. He took out his shopping list and added doorbell button, chimes, and transformer to his list. He'd also need a tester and some screwdrivers. "It doesn't work."

  "I would have sent in Fred to get you but the house is warded."

  The spirit guide loomed in the shadows of the porch, bent nearly double as he hovered protectively behind Winnie.

  "He's not around, is he?" Winnie peered in through the open door.

  "Decker? I think he's asleep, or whatever he does during the day."

  "Most night creatures are dormant during the daylight hours." Winnie put her fingers to her purple lipstick lips but caught herself before she actually chewed on her purple-painted nails. "It probably would seem like he's hibernating."

  Joshua blushed furiously as the wolf made him step back into the house, eager to find the man deeply asleep. "I'm leaving!" He stepped back outside and slammed the door shut. "Stupid wolf."

  Winnie scurried down the steps to the sidewalk, putting distance between her and the angry werewolf. "I'm sorry! I---I can go with you." It wasn't so much an offer as a question. She pointed to her Vespa to make it an offer. "I can give you a ride."

  "No!" He didn't want to get on the scooter ever again. "I was going to walk." He felt bad for obviously scaring her. "You can come with me. I'm going to the hardware store."

  She brightened. "Okay."

  They started to walk with Fred drifting behind them. The spirit guide's presence made the hair on Joshua's neck stand on end.

  "I'm sorry I didn't come by yesterday," Winnie said. "I tried to do another session to find out more about Jack. Marie popped in and took me off for an eating and shopping binge. She's figured out credit cards. Luckily she hasn't figured out about taking the tags off yet; I took all the clothes back. Which is a real shame; she has amazing taste. I just wouldn't be able to pay the minimum on my credit card until we cash in the lottery ticket. I have no idea when Granny will let us do that, so---back the clothes go."

  It took Joshua a moment to remember that "Marie" was the ghost of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, who was haunting Boston for unknown reasons. Winnie been kidnapped as the ghost took possession of her body and her credit card.


  "She did leave me a note." Winnie took out a paper receipt from a local bakery for a whopping sixty-three dollars. Something was written on the back in elegant cursive script.

  "Is that French?" he said.

  "Yes, it took me all last night to make sure Google Translate wasn't mangling the meaning. It says that I should find another lover since Jack has taken refuge in the arms of another woman, one much prettier than me. She recommended the clerk at the bakery. I'm not sure if that is supernatural knowledge that he's a good match, or she just wants better access to cake."

  Joshua wasn't sure how to respond. "I'm sorry?"

  "Oh, it's good news, except the sixty-three dollars part. Jack is alive."

  Who was Jack again? Oh yes, the wolf that sent him to Boston---or at least---he thought the wolf meant Boston but it really meant New York City. He was losing track of all the weird players in the new life, most of which he hadn't actually met, like Marie, Jack, the prince and technically, the Wolf King.

  The wolf snarled at the thought of the Wolf King.

  "Hush!" Joshua snapped. Winnie edged away from him. "Sorry. And I'm sorry that Decker hissed at you the other day. The Wolf King and everything..." Meaning her driving. "I was kind of freaked out."

  "No! No! I think it's sweet."

  Sweet? Sweet? What did that mean? He growled with annoyance.

  "I brought brownies." Winnie held out a large Tupperware container filled with dark cake-like bars that smelled heavenly.

  "I just had breakfa...oh, these are good! Mmmank mmmou." The wolf filled his mouth before he could turn the brownies down. The wolf was a serious black hole when it came to food.

  The brownies lasted until they reached the hardware store. He grabbed a cart. There was candy and chips by the checkout counter right inside the door. Winnie threw one of each kind into the cart. Considering he'd already growled at her three times, he decided it was probably a smart thing for her to do.

  "I need to get a bunch of stuff." He pulled out his list. "I'm hoping I can get it all here."