Argentum (P.A.W.S. Book 2)

by Debbie Manber Kupfer

  “Hey, Miri,” called Demonica, laughing, “P.A.W.S. is over there!”

  Embarrassed, Miri turned in the other direction and made her way to the oak tree.

  It took Miri fifteen minutes, but she finally found her way to the oak tree entrance. She changed back into human form, checking her pocket to make sure she still had the brown paper parcel. She used the stick to open the door to the elevator and was supremely thankful that there was no one inside.

  Tears of frustration flowed from her eyes now. I’ve no reason to be jealous, she told herself, Danny loves me. He told me yesterday. Old friends, that’s all they are, old friends. And even if they were more than friends once, that was in the past. I’m being stupid. But somehow her heart wouldn’t obey her head and the tears continued to flow.

  In the corridor, she took out her map and silently thanked the librarian for it again. She followed the blue dot to her room. She closed the door behind her and put on the latch. She tossed the package onto the side table and sank down onto her bed, crying tears of frustration and self-pity.

  After all her tears were spent, she got up and went to the bathroom. She washed her face and looked in the mirror at her puffy red eyes. Stupid, she thought to herself again. I’ve got more important things to think about than Danny and Demonica.

  She turned her attention to the package. Carefully, she began removing the layers of brown paper. There were three layers and inside lay a book. The book’s cover was a deep purple.

  On the cover was just one word embossed in silver: “Argentum.” Miri turned the pages. They were all blank.

  Chapter 33

  “We need to call the police, Cynthia,” Aldous said for what seemed like the millionth time.

  “No, we do not,” insisted Cynthia. “He doesn’t know what he’s doing. I don’t want him sent to jail, or the crazy house. He’s my husband, for God’s sake. It will get into all the papers. I’ll never live it down. They may even think I’m crazy too, and I’ll end up in the crazy house. A padded cell for two. Won’t that be cozy! No, you’re the detective Aldous, you work out what’s going on.”

  “But Cynthia I deal with missing cats and—”

  “Wayward husbands. I hired you for a job, Aldous. I paid you good money. I want to get full value out of it.”

  Aldous sighed. He looked at Cynthia. A large and nasty purplish bruise had formed on the side of her face where David had hit her, which no amount of concealer was going to hide. Secretly, Aldous did wonder about her sanity. At first, when Cynthia said that David became a monster, he presumed she meant metaphorically, but it soon became clear that, in her mind at least, the monster was real. And then there was what he heard when she was tossing and turning in her sleep. The same name, over and over: Alistair. But when he asked who that was, she claimed she had no idea. Cynthia had hired Aldous because she suspected infidelity, but Aldous we beginning to wonder who, in fact, had been unfaithful.

  “So what do we already know?” said Cynthia. “David was meeting a boy in Forest Park. The last time they met, the boy gave David a box for which David gave the boy a large amount of money. I assumed the jewelry inside the box was a present for me, but instead it seems that my husband is wearing the chain himself and that chain changes him into a—”

  “Monster,” finished Aldous. “No, I cannot accept that. There must be another explanation.”

  “That’s all very well for you to say, but I know what I saw. Let me look at the picture of the boy again. Maybe it will jog my memory.”

  Aldous walked over to his computer and showed Cynthia the picture of the lanky blond youth. Cynthia shook her head. She was certain she’d never seen the boy before. What puzzled Aldous is that the boy didn’t seem to exist. As a private detective, he had access to many databases. It was hard these days to be completely off the grid, yet this boy seemed to have achieved it.

  “Maybe we should go back to the park. Together this time,” said Cynthia. “We can retrace David’s steps. Maybe we’ll discover something.” Over the years, Cynthia had watched many detective shows on TV. She knew that on these shows no mystery ever remained unsolved. Why should her personal mystery be any different?

  “All right,” agreed Aldous, for want of something better to do. At least if they went together he would be able to keep an eye on Cynthia, and prevent her from going back to her house again alone. Despite her nonsense, Aldous was fond of Cynthia, and wanted to avoid her being hurt again if at all possible.

  They took his old, beat up car to Forest Park. Cynthia had whined at this, wanting to take her sports car, but Aldous pointed out that they’d be far less conspicuous in his old Ford. Cynthia turned up her nose as she got into the passenger seat. The car had a musty smell and was filled with to-go coffee cups and fast food wrappers.

  “Sorry.” Aldous shrugged.

  He flipped on the radio which was set to an oldies station.

  “Can we not?” asked Cynthia.

  “Okay,” said Aldous, and reluctantly turned it off. Now they would have to talk, and he wasn’t sure he was up for more conversation.

  “So, have you ever been married?” asked Cynthia.

  “No,” said Aldous quietly. “I never met the right woman.”

  Cynthia looked at him. He wasn’t bad looking, she thought, in a rumpled kind of way. If he would just go shopping with her, she could vamp up his wardrobe. She turned her thoughts to the issue at hand. She wasn’t quite sure what it was they might find in Forest Park, but somehow she felt the answer was there, if they only knew where to look.

  They arrived at Forest Park and combed the streets, looking for a parking spot. Finally they found one and got out and walked.

  Aldous took her around to all the places he’d watched David walk and where he’d met with the blond-haired youth. But there was nothing to discover, no clues to untangle. He even showed her the tree where he’d found the box. Cynthia put her hand inside; maybe there was something he’d missed. But no.

  Finally they went for a coffee in the Visitor’s Center. Aldous was tired and out of sorts. Cynthia, on the other hand, was enjoying playing detective. Suddenly, just as she was taking a bite out of her banana nut muffin, she remembered something.

  “The Jewel Box!” she exclaimed.

  “It’s closed,” said Aldous. “Remember that explosion a few months ago? They’re still trying to fix it.”

  Yes, Cynthia remembered the explosion. She remembered that morning, sitting in her kitchen, drinking wine, and watching the news. She remembered how David had looked. The worry on his face. And she remembered how she felt, as if this news was extremely important, but she didn’t have a clue as to why.

  “She’s there . . . David said that she was there.”

  “What?” asked Aldous, confused.

  “Miri, I think . . . or maybe Nora?”

  “Miri? Nora? Now you’ve lost me. Who are they and what has this got to do with David and the mystery boy?”

  “I don’t know,” admitted Cynthia, “It just seems like it’s all connected.”

  They walked over to the Jewel Box, which was cordoned off for repairs. There had been many theories thrown out about the explosion. Gas, a freak lightning bolt, a bomb, even aliens! None of them seemed very likely. Cynthia gazed over at the glass house. In the tops of the trees inside, she could swear she saw a toucan. But that wasn’t possible. How in the world would a toucan get there?

  “Nothing here,” said Aldous. “We should go home.”

  “No,” said Cynthia, suddenly realizing she was enjoying her day out with Aldous and didn’t want it to end just yet. “Let’s go to the zoo.”

  “Okay,” sighed Aldous. He was willing to humor Cynthia, but wasn’t sure where this would lead them. But then, he thought, he didn’t really have anything better to do. Cynthia was his only client at the moment. Actually, she’d been his only client for longer than he would care to admit.

  The zoo was crowded. It was a beautiful spring day. Cynthia seemed to h
ave a burst of energy as she walked with Aldous, laughing like a schoolgirl and pointing at the prairie dogs and bears. She wondered at herself. Normally she didn’t like animals much, except if they were dead and made into a nice fur jacket, but today everything seemed to delight her.

  As they walked into the old monkey house, she noticed a chimpanzee in the corner cage dressed in a tuxedo. She pointed at it, laughing, and dragged Aldous towards it. Aldous looked at her, confused. That was odd, she swore there had been a chimp there, but the corner she was making for turned out to be just empty wall.

  As they were leaving the monkey house, they noticed a couple of teens walking in front of them: a small brown-haired girl and a tall blond-haired boy. Suddenly Aldous was alert. He pointed at the youth. “That’s him,” he whispered.

  “Let’s go and talk to him,” Cynthia said.

  The boy and the girl had sat down on a bench and were talking seriously together. As Cynthia approached, she took in the appearance of the girl and gasped. The girl didn’t look as if she was more than 12 or 13 years old, but she was very heavily pregnant and the large bump was incongruous with her tiny frame.

  “Excuse me,” said Cynthia, “but do you by any chance know David Katz, the fur merchant?”

  The boy looked up her. “Who?” he said.

  “Oh . . .” said Cynthia, embarrassed, “I must have gotten the wrong person, sorry.”

  Then she looked at the girl and fidgeted with her pocketbook and took out a $20 bill.

  “Here,” she said, handing the girl the money. “Get something nice for the baby.”

  The girl looked at Cynthia and tried to say something, but Cynthia was already rapidly walking away with Aldous. “I need the bathroom, quickly,” she said.

  By the time she got to the toilet stall she was shaking. She knelt on the floor and threw up into the bowl. She had no idea why the girl and the boy had made her feel the way they did, but was sure that she was connected to them in some way.

  She got up from the floor, flushed the toilet, and washed her face and hands in the sink. Then she walked outside and up to Aldous.

  “Let’s go home,” she said.

  Andrew and Jenna sat on the bench for almost an hour. Jenna stared at the $20 bill.

  “I wonder what that was about?” she said.

  “Not a clue,” replied Andrew.

  “He won’t talk to me, you know? He talks to Miri, but he won’t talk to me. Miri’s scared of him, but what’s there to be scared of? He’s only a baby. I won’t let anyone hurt you, Ryan,” she said, rubbing her belly gently.

  “I’m sure you won’t,” said Andrew, placing his hands on hers.

  Andrew looked at her and almost felt sorry for her. She thought he was her friend; well, maybe he was, but more than that he was the protector of the unborn child. Alistair had trusted him to take care of his son and he was determined to do it, no matter what.

  “Let’s go, Jenna, the pack are waiting for us.”

  “I don’t know if I can do it anymore, Andrew. The baby is so big. How is it he can still transform with me?”

  Andrew knew the answer to this, because Alistair had explained it to him. The wolf was the baby’s natural form. Jenna was just the vessel, to be discarded when the time was right.

  There were just two full moons before the birth now, and still Andrew had not managed to convince Jenna to feast on human flesh and blood. Alistair had said that this was imperative for the future of the child, that the baby needed this to achieve its immortality. It would likely be many years before Ryan would transform again after his birth, not until he reached adolescence, but in the meantime he needed this special nourishment to cement his future.

  Tonight. He would try again tonight. He was hungry. For the last few months, he’d sated his hunger at the full moon with only rabbits and squirrels. He’d hidden his true nature carefully from the wolves at P.A.W.S. and the pack members, but if he wanted to maintain his immortality and to be a mentor for Ryan, he also needed to feast.

  “The baby needs you not to fight it, Jenna. He will enjoy his transformation too, if you let him, if you nourish him properly. Come, let’s go join the pack.”

  Reluctantly, Jenna got up from the bench, the weight from her belly dragging her down. It was getting late and the zoo was officially closed now, although it would take a while before all the stragglers had left.

  Jenna and Andrew walked towards River’s Edge. They waited for the zookeeper to go off in a different direction and then slipped the barrier to join the wolves. The zoo pack had almost doubled since Alistair’s pack disbanded. Jenna nodded at Ethan, a small grey wolf, probably the youngest in the pack. Jenna liked Ethan, he was one of the few wolves other than Andrew who had always been kind to her. Now it seemed he enjoyed his life here with the zoo pack, and had no wish to learn the magic of P.A.W.S.

  Andrew guided Jenna off to one side.

  “After we transform,” he said, “we can go off by ourselves if you wish.”

  “Please,” said Jenna. She sensed that Ryan didn’t want to stay with the group, and was happy to do whatever made him comfortable.

  The moon was starting to rise. Jenna felt the excitement of the baby inside her. He liked the full moon, and that terrified her. Terrible thoughts would race through her head when she was in wolf form—thoughts of destruction. She couldn’t believe that they came from her child. No, Ryan was good. He was only a baby, not even born yet. No, the thoughts must come from her own subconscious and she had to beat them down.

  Andrew and Jenna transformed simultaneously. His wolf form was blond, like his hair, and was startling in the moonlight. They communicated through thoughts.

  “Come on,” said Andrew, and led Jenna through the park.

  The park was mostly empty now, but over in the Turtle Playground a young girl was sitting by herself on top of one of the stone turtles. She had lost track of time, but in any case she didn’t really have any place to go.

  She had run away from home three weeks ago, expecting that someone would come looking for her, but nobody had. Nobody cared, she realized, not her mother, not her stepfather, and certainly not her brother. So, she hung out in the park and ate thrown-away food out of garbage cans. Luckily, folks threw away a lot of food and she’d never yet gone hungry.

  She sat on the turtle watching the full moon. Imagining herself up in the stars, flying among the constellations. She didn’t notice the man until he was upon her.

  “Now, what do we have here?” He glared at her, his teeth glinting in the moonlight. “You’re a pretty young thing, aren’t you?” The girl tried to back away, but the man barred her way.

  “Do you want to make some money, darling? I have friends who would pay a lot for a gem like you. Of course, I would have to check the merchandise first.”

  He grabbed hold of the girl and forced her down onto the concrete of the turtle. He pressed his lips on hers and thrust his tongue down her throat. The girl gagged, and tried to push him away, but he was too strong. He ripped away the front of her T-shirt and exposed her breasts, and reached down for a moment to unbutton his fly . . .

  Out of the darkness he leapt, the blond wolf, powerful and strong. He got the man by the scruff of the neck with his teeth and pulled him off the girl. The girl, terrified, ran off into the park.

  The man gazed up into the wolf’s face, both horrified and mesmerized. Where had he come from? The wolf held him down with his paws and plunged his teeth into the man’s skin. Out the corner of his eye, the man saw another, smaller, wolf join the first, and the two of them satiated their hunger on his body. His screams echoed through the park, but nobody who heard them cared.

  Chapter 34

  Josh paced back and forth through Jessamyn’s chamber. Today it resembled a forest path. The illusory trees were dark and foreboding and seemed to match Jessamyn’s current mood perfectly.

  “I tell you, I have no idea who it was,” insisted Josh.

  “But you admit it must have
been a wolf?”

  “Yes, the evidence is there, but the pack was on the other side of the park at the time and you know we only feast on vermin.”

  Josh shuddered, the memory of the corpse fresh in his mind. It had been nearly picked clean. Definitely the work of wolves, but who? Were there others still out there? Missing members of Alistair’s pack who harbored a taste for human flesh?

  He’d received a message from Danny a couple of days ago, telling him about a street wolf he and Miri had encountered in Indianapolis. Now that the full moon had passed, he planned to send a couple of his pack members out to Indianapolis to investigate. Maybe this stray wolf would know of other stragglers.

  Jessamyn looked straight into Josh’s eyes. It was clear that she was not as convinced of his pack’s innocence as Josh, but she chose not to press it without further evidence. Instead she turned to Josh and said:

  “Have some of your pack clean up the mess. And quickly. It would be better if the police don’t get involved.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” And he turned to go.

  “And Josh?”

  “Yes?”

  “Keep an eye on them. If you find out anything, please let me know.”

  “I will,” said Josh, and he left the room.

  Jessamyn glanced over at her scrying bowl. It would be so easy, a scrap of bloodstained cloth from the scene of the crime and she could quickly identify the errant wolves, but part of Jessamyn didn’t want to know. She knew it was foolish. If there was a murderer in their midst then surely . . . but no, something told her to leave it alone. She shook her head, bemused by her thoughts.

  There was a knock on her door. Quentin walked into the room. Jessamyn smiled. She liked having him around. After so many years, she was no longer lonely. It didn’t seem to matter that Jessamyn was now older than he was. She rose to greet him.

  “Good morning,” she said.

  “Good morning, my love,” he replied and kissed her gently on the lips. “How are you this fine spring day?”

  He hadn’t heard then. Jessamyn told Quentin about the wolf attack in the Turtle Playground. He stayed silent while she talked, studying her with his green eyes.