by Tobi Grim
“Oh?” Hammer smiled wider and lit himself a cigarette. “Perhaps I did. But I am sure that does not matter. What does matter, my beautiful witch, is what you wish to do with this information now?”
“What am I supposed to do with it? Everyone involved is either dead or in someone’s custody. What the fuck can I do?”
“Oh, I am sure not everyone involved was there last night, little witch, do you really suppose they would have had everyone entangled there? I do believe this is much bigger than you are willing to see. But perhaps it is too soon. What have you told your Slasher witch about the evening? Did you confess the change in your magick?”
Lupa hesitated. “No…”
“Of course, you are much smarter than that.” Hammer leaned forward slightly, “And what do you wish to do with it now that you see there is much more?”
“I don’t know… Hawk wants…” Lupa bit her lip, should she really tell him? Shit. She had to, he was the only one she wasn’t lying to in her life. Almost. “Hawk still has one of the higher access cards we were supposed to use for our case… he wants to do some digging. He thinks… he thinks there’s something going on that we don’t know about. He’s… suspicious of a few things after… what he read.”
“My, my, you have chosen a Protector well, wolf witch. I knew he had much potential within him. And did you tell him about the developments of our evening?”
“Umm… mostly. He doesn’t know… everything…” Lupa shifted her body around to face Hammer, “I haven’t told him anything about you or Sledge… or anything of that sort…”
“I did not even consider such a thing, Little Red, but perhaps there shall come a day when Protector Hawk will know. Not now, of course, but one can never know the future, my wolf witch, there are many wonderful things around us bringing our forces together. You may not believe in these things the way I do, but our paths have crossed now, and I believe they will not part for a long while yet, if at all.”
Hammer tucked her hair behind her ear and looked deep into her eyes, making Lupa feel nervous and excited at the same time. What was he really saying? Did he want Dameon to join them in whatever he was insinuating? Fuck. What was he insinuating?
“Do not torment yourself, little wolf witch, all things will come to light in time. But for now, just know we have much to discover together. You are only just beginning to open yourself to the real world. We shall not push that. Come to me when you are ready, we have much to discuss, and much to discover. And I am sure there is much you wish to read.” Hammer grinned and moved back from her, crossing his legs.
“I’m ready. I am. But… I don’t really know what you want from me.”
“I want you to discover the real magick within you, not what The Organization has told you, you are. You are more than a number on your score sheets, you are more than the intertwining bloods within your veins, and you are much more than The Organization can ever dream of handling. Why do you think they spied on you? I believe you know this. I trust you are beginning to see that they are not what you thought, and not what they promised you. And that you are more than they ever gave you credit for.”
Lupa looked down at her hands. Yeah. She was becoming wary of the place she had trusted so much. But they were still her life. “Ok. Well… I guess that’ll do for now… do you think my lightning will always be white now?”
“No… I suspect you will be able to use both, but it will take much from you to get it back to the way it was, perhaps we should do some training so that The Organization does not discover it… I am sure it will be fascinating to uncover what depths you hold. But we shall start with learning how to use them separately.”
“Shit… ok. Well… Hawk and I have the week off…” Lupa glanced back up at Hammer who was still fucking smiling.
“Very well. Sledge will take you home, you can call me when you are ready, my wolf witch. I do not wish to pressure you, and considering you now owe me nothing, I will understand should you wish to change your mind.”
“I won't. I can’t. Not now…”
Lupa smiled back at Hammer. Yes. This was something she trusted. She didn’t need to trust him to know he would help her, it didn’t really matter that it was for his own sake more than hers. Lupa was going to learn more about him, and this magick she’d produced. She would be more. More than the witch with wolf-blood.
✽ ✽ ✽
Sledge pulled the car out the front of her building as the sky opened up. He didn’t get out though, just lit a smoke and sat there. Lupa did the same and waited. He’d get around to it. Or she’d open her half-drunk mouth.
“Thinkin’ you gonna take Hammer up?”
“Yeah… how can I not?”
Sledge grunted and rubbed the back of his neck. “Thinkin’ the wolfblood that came out of you be gone now the magick is?”
“Don’t know…” Lupa stole a glance at him, but he wasn’t looking at her. “Why didn’t Hammer want to tell me Ahriman’s name?”
Sledge shrugged and turned his gaze towards her, his eyes looking guarded. “Hammer got his ways. Got things he don’t like sayin’ or doin’. Just bein’ the way he is. Got plenty of things he don’t mind doin’ that you wouldn’t too…”
“Think I shouldn’t take the offer up?”
“Thinkin’ you should. Thinkin’ he can show you things you aint never know anywhere else. Thinkin’ you may not always be likin’ them is all.”
“Yeah…” Lupa’s phone rang loudly and startled her. She grabbed it from her bag and sighed. It was Slasher.
“Hey.”
“Hey, hun, you able to talk?”
“Yeah. What’s up?”
“We have the teenagers… shit. They’re pretty fucked up. We haven’t been able to get much out of them… they are going to be sent to Central. The Force are pretty ticked off that you found out what was going on and they didn’t, but they have headed back to Grace. From what we can gather, the teens were the ones who killed the cows, this Ahriman guy promised them magick powers if they did…. And I guess it all rolled on from there…”
“I see… anything on the wolfblood family?”
“I’ve had a bit of a look into it, they weren’t even strong enough to know they were wolfblood really, so I don’t think they had anything to do with Isabella’s bloodline. Think they just… got caught up in the whole thing. Shit, Lupa, this started six months ago and no one even had a fucking clue. We have Clean-up looking around more now, they’ll try find the bodies…”
“And… what about Karl?” Lupa saw Sledge moving out the corner of her eye but didn’t look over. She couldn’t.
“I… don’t know. I haven’t worked out how to ask Central about it yet. I had a look, but it doesn’t show up with my access... I’ve been locked out of any reports on you, I suppose they’ll say because you’re my daughter but… I don’t like it. And I’m not sure how to ask about it without saying Hawk came across it. I really don’t want to get him in the shit, we don’t know what they might do… Realistically he shouldn’t have been able to see them either with that card…”
“Yeah… well… let me know.”
“Ok… are you alright, Lupa? I’m worried about you…you’ve had a lot to deal with lately. For some it might be too much.”
“You’re always worried about me, you’re my mother and my Commander. I’ll be fine. And if I’m not, I’ll call. Promise.”
Lupa hung up the phone, she didn’t want to keep talking about it. If they kept talking about it, the little pill wouldn’t help stop the emotions from trying to grasp at her mind. And she really just didn’t want to fucking think about it. Another day. When shit wasn’t so… crazy. Yeah right. From the looks of the way she was going, shit would just keep getting crazier.
“You a’right?”
Lupa startled out of her thoughts and looked over to Sledge, smiling, “You betcha. Wanna come up for a drink?”
“If’n you wantin’, witchy girl.”
Sledge got out and opened her door, Lu
pa made a run for the front door and quickly unlocked it, holding it open for him to follow through and out of the rain. Not that it made much of a difference, they were both drenched in the seconds it had taken them to cross the road. She opened her door and went over to the kitchen to pour them both a drink.
“You gotten a heater?” Sledge was starting to unbutton his soaked shirt.
“Um… sorta. I mean… yeah I have a crappy one over there, I dunno if it still works though…”
Lupa watched as Sledge pulled his shirt off and went to look at the old coil heater, turning it on and waiting before nodding and putting his shirt over it. Lupa watched the way his muscles moved under his skin as he did so. He turned back to her, Lupa looked down at their drinks, blushing.
“Want a mixer?” She asked, hesitating next to the fridge.
“Whatever you be havin’.” Sledge sat on her couch and threw one arm over the back. “Aint gettin’ changed?”
Lupa was tempted to just pull her shirt off and see what he thought, but she knew it wasn’t a good idea. She just took their drinks over with the bottle tucked under her arm. Sledge took the drinks and she put the bottle on the table.
“Back in a sec.” She strolled to her room and pulled off the wet shirt and jeans, pulling a dress over her head and coming back out.
“Hawk bein’ a’right after throwin’ his people in the river?”
Lupa raised her eyebrows as she sat down, lighting a smoke, “You knew about that?”
Sledge shrugged and threw his drink back, “Aint nothin’ happenin’ in Blackwater that Hammer aint knowin’. You knowin’ that.”
Lupa nodded. Yeah, she did. But she didn’t think Sledge would be so… whatever. “Yeah he’s ok. Was passed out when I left him. If he needed anything… he would have messaged me. He got pretty trashed though, I think he’ll be out ‘til morning. He’s ok… considering.”
“As ok as you?” Sledge’s eyes showed nothing, his face completely blank.
“No… what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Aint supposed to mean nothin’…” Sledge slowly moved his eyes away from her, “Just aint thinkin’ you bein’ as ok as you dun keep tellin’ everyone.”
Lupa filled her glass again. No fucking shit she wasn’t. But she knew the deal, fake it ‘til you make it. Eventually it would all be pushed into the dark place, eventually she would forget those feelings, those memories that pushed their way to the surface against her will. It would be forgotten again, it would be locked up tight along with the new feelings and memories she had gained. Like Karl’s betrayal… shit.
“I’ll be fine. I might not be right now, but I will be…”
“Pushin’ everythin’ back into them dark places? Thinkin’ it be workin’ again? It bein’ a lot to happen all at once… seein’ all that stuff in your head…”
“So what? I’ll be ok. I’m always ok. Just gotta keep busy… it’ll… go away again.”
“A’right. Just thinkin’ I should be askin’. Aint wanna leave you alone in there. Thinkin’ I aint carin’… I know you aint wantin’ me to see. But…”
“It doesn’t matter, ok? If I'm’ not alright, I’ll tell you. And I’ll tell Slasher. And I’ll tell fucking Dameon. I get it, people are worrying about me blah blah blah. But if-”
“Nah, I aint sayin’ it like that, Lupa, I just sayin’… aint no one knowin’ it like I do. I knowin’… I seein’… I aint want you to feel like I just ignorin’ it. Aint turnin’ away, remember?”
Lupa sighed, why did he have to be so… screw it, whatever. “Yeah I know.” She just wanted to stop fucking talking about it. “Thanks. I’ll be ok.”
Sledge nodded and filled both their glasses again. “A’right then. I drop it now, you just knowin’ where I am if you ever needin’.”
Lupa nodded slowly, then lay her hand on his arm, looking carefully at the script tattooed on him. It was that same language from his wolfblood book… from Hammer’s ancestor book too. “What’s this say?”
“Sayin’ ‘All things are difficult before they are easy.’” Sledge’s hand dropped to her knee, giving it an almost unnoticeable squeeze.
Lupa looked up into his eyes, he was watching her curiously. She gave him a small smile. “I like that. Seems… fitting.”
Sledge smiled, “Thinkin’ it bein’ so, witchy girl.”
