by C. D. Gorri
“What? They can’t do that.”
“It’s the government. They say they can.” Uncle Vito slammed his hand down on the table and reached for his cell phone.
“He’s still not answering!”
“They can do anything they want to. They are the bosses, si.”
“Well, they are wrong.” I slammed my fist down and the salt and pepper shakers went flying. Oops.
“Don’t worry, Grazi, I’m telling you Andy was a good guy. He wouldn’t have gotten me into this mess. I’m gonna go see him tomorrow at his office and double check everything. It’ll be okay, mama, I swear.” I could almost taste Uncle Vito’s desperation. He was beyond reason right now so I just left him to his ledgers and focused on Nonna.
She looked older. Fragile and pale. Was this all of a sudden or was my supernatural vision allowing me to see things I just couldn’t before? I took in her slight frame and softly lined skin. Her springy white curls and clear brown eyes that were now red and puffy. Her lips were thin and she weighed less than before it seemed.
“Nonna? Who told you this?”
“It was the tax men. They came here today with these letters. They say we have one month. Como? One month! For all that money! If only Nonno were here! I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. But you don’t worry, cara, okay? You worry enough.” She patted my hand and stood up from the table.
“Vito, I’m going to bed. Tomorrow we see the lawyer and that crooked accountant of yours. Go to bed, Grazi. I’ll make it okay, si.”
I knew she was lying. She didn’t believe it would be okay. I took the stairs two at a time my stomach clenched and my breathing heavy. Ronan was waiting with the door open. He held his arms open wide and I rushed into them.
“I heard. What are you gonna do?”
“I have to talk to Uncle Sean. My dad left me money. I need it.”
“Right. Let’s go.”
We took our usual shortcut and seconds later I was knocking at Uncle Sean’s study.
“Come in. Ah, Grazi, Ronan, how can I help you this evening?”
“I need $240,000 from my trust fund.”
“Um, okay that was right to the point. Why on earth do you need all that money?”
“For Nonna.”
“I’m afraid I’ll need more of an explanation than that.”
I didn’t think I could speak right then. Ronan must have sensed that because he spoke up. He explained everything that had just happened.
“Alright look, we have excellent lawyers and accountants in the Pack. I’m not sure if any are experts in American law and taxes, but I’ll give Rafe Maccon a call and see who he can recommend, alright? Don’t worry, Grazi, we take care of our own.”
The knots in my stomach loosened a bit and I nodded. Ronan walked me back over to my house. He leapt up to my windowsill. I was right behind him.
“There you guys are. I’ve been waiting!” Alessio looked up from my desk. He was on my lap top clicking away at the keys.
“You know you need an upgrade right? This is like trying to write with a stone and chisel.”
“What are you doing” How did you get in here?”
“I’m Romani. I get in places norms can’t. Anyway I’m here for the dreamscape. Remember?”
“Tonight?”
“Well duh. I’m here aren’t I?”
“Where’s Madame Magdelena?”
“Busy. My aunt is in labor.” I cocked my head to the side.
“You know, what I mean, right? Labor. Babies coming? She’s having twins. Puri daj is her midwife.”
“I understand what labor means Alessio. But isn’t this dangerous?”
“Yeah, no worries. I trained up. It’ll be great. Seriously.”
Ronan growled and I saw his eyes glow.
“If she gets hurt. I’ll eat ya.” Alessio gulped and I had to hide my laughter. Though I knew his sentiment to be real, he was just kidding. Werewolves simply don’t eat people. Too fatty.
Ronan kept up his stare. I was impressed he had such great control over his Wolf. He stared out through Ronan’s eyes for a minute more. Just to get his point across I guess. When I was sure it was safe, I left the boys alone and went to the bathroom. I needed to splash some cold water on my face.
Seriously. What a day it was turning out to be. I came out drying my hands on a small towel covered with pictures of rubber ducks. I tossed it into the hamper and walked over to Ronan. He squeezed my hand. I held onto his as I laid on my bed and tried to close my eyes.
“This is stupid I can’t sleep with both of you watching me.”
“Okay look. Less go to the computer and do whatever it is you do. Give her some privacy. Maria, I’ll lay down with you. Okay?”
“Okay. That sounds good. Hey, where’s the dreamcatcher?”
“Took it down, or this won’t work.” Alessio showed me the now normal sized dreamcatcher in his hand. He sat down at the desk and put on his headphones. Ignoring us completely. Good that might help me sleep.
Ronan got on the bed next to me. He was stiff and awkward at first. I rolled over and used his arm to pillow my head. He caressed my face with his free hand. I closed my eyes. I really was tired. The steady rhythm of his breathing blocked out the rest of the world. I could get used to this. His voice was low. So low I knew Alessio couldn’t hear.
“You are lovely, girl, you know that? Beautiful.”
“I’m not beautiful.”
“Who told you such a thing? Course you are. It starts here and runs through ya till it pours outside. Beautiful, you Maria are so beautiful to me.”
He believed what he said as he tapped my chest over my heart then caressed my face again. He bent down and gave me a soft brief kiss on the lips.
“I’m scared.”
“I know. I’m right here and I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I’m not scared of this right now. I’m scared of all of it, Ronan.”
“I know. I wasn’t talking about just right now either. I meant I am here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
“Because of the contract?”
“No. Because of your smile. Your smell. Your eyes. My heart was yours from day one. It has always been yours. I am sure now that that has always been God’s plan for me. I was born to love you.”
My breathing stopped. I felt a tear trickle down my face from the corner of my eye.
“No, no tears. This is a beautiful thing. A good thing, Maria or Grazi or whatever you want me to call you.” He laughed a little and I smiled too.
“I love you. It’s simple as that. Now close your eyes, I’m not going anywhere.” He kissed my forehead and I obeyed. I closed my eyes.
I didn’t think I could speak anyway. Ronan seemed to know that. He seemed to know what all of my fears were about. Being alone, learning about this whole new world, my parents’ deaths, my lost brother, losing my house, Nonna getting older, everything.
I felt an immense sense of relief and gratitude that he was there with me. And hope. For the first time in my life I felt hope that there was someone just for me. I wasn’t an outsider with him. I could trust him with my secrets. All of them.
I knew he would keep his word. My protector. My companion. Always. My Wolf sent the thought to me. She was content in that moment.
I must have drifted to sleep. Staring into green eyes that have become as familiar as my own. Ronan had become more important to me than I knew how to deal with at the moment. I forced myself to focus on the task at hand.
I was back in the tunnels. They were as dark and damp as ever. My Werewolf vision allowed me to see as well as if it had been daylight. I looked behind me briefly and saw no end to them. Someday I’d have to go hunting down here. See where the tunnels led.
I soon made my way into the same basement as before. I was hit with the powerful smell of bleach almost instantly. Someone had attempted to clean the mess. No bones or rotting corpses littered the ground. And only the faintest whiff of blood remained beneath th
e Clorox.
I walked to the stairs and listened. There was no sound. Nothing. Silent as a tomb. My stomach sank, but my Wolf remained calm. I climbed the stairs carefully. The old wooden door opened with a small nudge from my lupine nose. I listened and still heard nothing.
The kitchen was not at all how I remembered it. There was no sickeningly sweet stench of garbage or bubbling pot of witches’ brew. It was as if someone had gotten a huge vacuum and sucked out the filth.
Still there was no noise. No sound at all. No evidence that anyone or anything had been here recently. Not even a crumb on the floor. I trotted over to the door where I knew a little boy had been kept. I pushed it open. Again I came up empty.
Something was wrong. There was no trace of the underfed boy with the huge blue eyes who begged me to come back for him. No bed where he had been tied. No blood stains on the floor or walls.
It was as if no one and nothing had ever been in this room. The walls were washed white and the floors completely bare. No hint of the poor tortured boy who haunted me even when I was awake. I was alone. Completely alone.
Not just in the room, but in life as well. Why didn’t I see it before? I didn’t fit in anywhere. My own mother called me an abomination. No friends. No one who cares for me. I was an outcast. A loser.
These thoughts pounded away at my brain and tore at my heart. Until- wait, there was Ronan. He was waiting for me. He was with me now. On the bed. I was not alone. He was there and Alessio was with him. What the heck had just happened? The fur on the back of my neck stood up.
There was something watching me. Something evil. I growled low in my throat. A disembodied voice seemed to pierce my confused mind.
“I wondered when you’d be back. Couldn’t stay away, tiny pup?”
It was deep, guttural, inhuman. Male or female? I really couldn’t tell. Almost as if several voices were combined to make the unholy sound. I looked around, but saw nothing. There was no one here.
Then movement in the deep shadows of the corner of the bedroom. Darkness spread from there along the walls. I stepped to the middle of the room. Away from them.
Never looking away at the mass of shadows that seemed to grow right in front of me. The shapes changed. First a man, then woman, fat, skinny, a goat, a bull, one eye, three eyes, a child, a snake. And it continued to shift. Too swiftly to say for certain what I was looking at.
“You shouldn’t have come back here. You may have had the chance before. But you will never stop us now.” The shadow figure stopped as a sort of face. It opened its mouth wide. Wider still. Big enough to be a doorway. Inside of it I saw the shapes of thousands of creatures making their way towards me.
They ran, slithered and crawled from the gaping mouth. Some even flew. I howled and growled at them. There were so many. I was surely dead.
The shadows crept towards me and reached out with claws so long and sharp they raked my fur. I howled in agony. Blood welled from my shredded skin and dripped to the floor. It made a sound like a nail being hammered into wood. Something grabbed at my tail from behind and I turned trying to keep as far from the walls as I could.
The shadow beasts raged and clawed and tried to grab onto me. I made for the bedroom door, but it was gone. Panic made my throat close. I didn’t know what to do or how to fight them.
The hissing and clamoring grew louder. One snake shaped beast tried to inch closer to me across the dark floor, but a ray of sunlight from the half covered window hit it. It shriveled back and screamed. Its cry pierced my ears. Inhuman in its agony. I felt no pity.
I finally knew what I had to do. There was no room for a running start. I crouched back on my hind legs and sprang forward. I did my best to curl my body out of the reach of too many claws and teeth, straight at the window. I hurtled through glass and ripped down the dark curtains with my teeth and paws.
The sunlight came streaming in. I picked my broken body up and stood on the glass and saw a glimpse of them running back. Back to the shadows. That’s all I remembered. That and the screams.
“Maria! Maria!” Ronan’s voice was frantic. His hands were shaking me. I tried to pull myself from the nightmare I was trapped in, but all I could feel was a searing pain all down my back.
“Stop man! Wait! It’s dangerous. Let me put up the catcher and finish the ritual!”
“What sort of ritual is this? Her heart sounds fainter with each beat! She is bleeding! Do something, damn it!” I heard Ronan growl. He sounded frantic. I wanted to get to him, reassure him.
I was there. I just couldn’t move. Like I was stuck on one of those carnival rides. You know the one where it spins so fast you stick to the walls and it’s almost impossible to pick up your arm or move your head for all the spinning. I always hated that ride.
I could hear both of them talking. Then it was just Alessio. He was speaking words I couldn’t understand. Then someone stood or sat on my bed. I could feel the dip. Whatever he was saying it was working. The spinning started slowing down. Alessio repeated the strange sounding words again. This time louder.
I could hear the power in his voice as he struggled with whatever Gypsy magic he was working. The smell of cinnamon filled my nostrils. I recognized Alessio’s anima magicae. The scent of Ronan as he clung to my hand was stronger still.
In my mind’s eye I saw my Wolf. Brown with a streak of pale gold down her muzzle. She was limping, but still standing. She looked at me then turned and howled. An ear piercing cry. I had an image of a large reddish wolf in my mind and an answering howl. Slowly I was pulled from the trance or whatever it was that held me down. I blinked my eyes.
“There you are. You’re back. You’re safe now.” I trembled violently. Ronan shouted at Alessio for a blanket, but he was on his knees on the floor completely drained. Ronan growled impatiently then took off his sweatshirt and draped it around me.
“Are you hurt? What happened?”
“Shhhhadowwws. There wwwerre shhhadowwws.” My words came out broken and slurred. My teeth were chattering. I was freezing.
“Here now. I gotcha.” Ronan climbed on the bed and surrounded me with his body. His strong arms hugged me as his hands rubbed mine. I looked down. My hands were trembling and so pale they looked almost blue. My hair was wet. With sweat perhaps? I didn’t know. It just felt so good to be held by him.
After a few minutes like that the trembling stopped. Alessio sat at the foot of the bed, his head hung down. He looked paler too. His long dark curls covered his face so I couldn’t see his expression. When he looked up his brown eyes were full of wonder and maybe a little fear.
“It’s true. You are a Dreamwalker. I thought it was a myth.”
“You’ll keep this quiet, gypsy, or I’ll have you for lunch.”
“Don’t worry, dog boy, I wouldn’t put her in any more danger than she’s already in.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean this.” He stood up and walked over to us. He lifted my right hand from Ronan’s grasp. Ronan tensed, but didn’t move. Alessio carefully pulled up the sleeve of my shirt.
On my upper arm running back towards my shoulder blade was a mark. Some sort of symbol I didn’t recognize. It was blood red and had a faint glow about it. As I watched it seemed to get lighter. Crap, I bet that’s not good.
“She’s been marked.”
CHAPTER 10
I sat in Uncle Sean’s office and waited. Ronan was pacing and Alessio was busy looking at a one of the several old leather bound books that crowded the shelves.
“Oh wow! This is amazing. Do you know how hard it is to get a copy of this in the original Greek?” The book he held up said Plato, but that was all. Must be something about philosophy, I guessed. I rubbed my arm. It didn’t hurt, but the symbol showed no more signs of fading.
Uncle Sean walked in. Sascha, Dimitri and Cara were with him. He turned and faced us. Alessio must have seen the Wolf in his eyes because the normally curious boy dropped the book and looked down at the floor.
; “Sorry man.” He hurried to pick it up, but Sascha got there first. He dusted it off and placed it back on the shelf with such speed I nearly gasped.
“Do you three have any idea what you have done!” Uncle Sean’s voice was low, but held no little amount of ferocity. His wolf was very near the surface and he was angry.
“The more dominant the Wolf, the greater the instinct to protect those around him.” I denied him that. I remembered my grandfather’s words. A little too late. Oh, well, uncle. It probably won’t be the last time.
I was hardly used to this idea of Pack and I could only imagine I would make many more decisions he didn’t agree with. Besides it was my life. My entire world was upside down and I had a right to try and figure it out. Especially when Uncle Sean and Rolf and everybody else wouldn’t tell me anything. I was brought back to the present with a slight nudge from Ronan.
“Gypsy magic? Dreamscaping no less! And none of it sanctioned by the Pack never mind the Hounds! Rolf would have your hide, girl!”
“Fr. Gallagher, it’s my fault. It was my job to watch out for her. I’m sorry I didn’t come to you-”
“What? Your job? No, I watch out for myself.” There was no way Ronan was taking the blame for this. Besides if we were going to have any kind of relationship he better get used to the idea that I am a modern woman. I was so not going to take a back seat to him or anyone else. Ever.
“Look, Uncle Sean, there was something going on. And you and Rolf haven’t given me much choice but to discover things on my own.”
“If you’d have just left it to us, we’d have found something Grazi! But not this! Not magic.”
“And why not? Alessio is my friend. I trust him.” Alessio seemed to stand a little taller as I spoke. He moved to my left side. Ronan positioned himself to my right and I realized together, we were strong.
“This is not how it’s done, Grazi.”
“Don’t you want to know what I found out?”
Uncle Sean’s gaze did not waver from my own. I could feel the discomfort of the other Wolves. After all he was the dominant and I shouldn’t meet his eyes, but I did.
“Aye. Speak now, child.”
