by Tiki Kos
“Well, I did eat a whole bunch of raw meat, a deer, and a bunny. Plus, you know my dad died...This was the worst week of my life.”
“Right.” His cheeks flushed crimson and he looked down at the fire. “I should apologize.”
“It’s okay,” I said slowly. “It still feels a little surreal saying that. I keep waiting to wake from this nightmare and see him alive again.”
“We have a lot to talk about.”
“Have you been following me?”
“Yes.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I thought you were going to die.”
“Die from what?”
“Lycanthropy kills women. Only men can survive the disease.”
“Lycanthropy?” I tried to make sense of the word. “Like, a werewolf from the movies?”
Sho flashed me a sympathetic grin.
“Is that why you gave me that awful tea?”
He nodded. “Yes. If treated within a few hours, it can be purged from your blood stream and you can live a normal life. But you would’ve had to drink the whole cup, and even another after that.”
“But I didn’t drink it all.”
“I know.”
“So why aren’t I dead?”
“I don’t know.” Sho shrugged. “I’ve never seen a case like yours.”
A loud voice thundered from behind us.
“You are the Nuntis. The harbinger of death. The sun wolf.” A hunchback woman with a large wooden cane hobbled towards us. She wore a thick brown leather jacket over acid washed jeans. Her long white hair was braided to the side. It hung off her shoulder, reaching all the way down to her waist. The woman wore colorful beaded earrings that dangled merrily against her neck.
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Don’t worry. Our tribe will help you understand.”
“Sunny, this is our Elder, Miakoda White Raven.” Sho stood up and wrapped his arm around the woman’s waist, helping her sit next to me.
“Nice to meet you.”
The woman bowed her head and smiled at me brightly.
“And nice to meet you. I’ve heard many so things about you.”
“You mean that I’m a wolf?”
Miakoda nodded. “Yes.”
“Does that mean you can turn into a raven as well?”
Miakoda placed her hand within mine and gave it a squeeze. She had a strong grip for such a fragile looking woman. “Yes, but I haven’t changed in many years. I’m afraid if I do, I will stay that way until I pass. I will shift one last time when I’m ready. But you…you are something extraordinary.” Her darks eyes lit up.
“Not really. I’m a regular girl who caught a disease…or wait, is it a curse?” I couldn’t believe that we were just sitting around talking about turning into animals as if it were as normal as folding laundry.
“You are too humble. My father foretold of your coming. This is why the wolves killed him and half the tribe. I was only five years old, and they slaughtered many.”
“Why would they do that?”
“The tribe was proud, and they fought with honor. They wouldn’t bend down to the wolves’ iron fist. We are the true mountain people; they did not belong on this land.”
“How did you escape?”
“I flew for the very first time, and saved my own life. After the massacre, we settled on a truce with the wolves, and our agreement was to never talk about the Nuntis. Our tribe and the wolves of Wolfmere will live peacefully together.”
“What’s so special about the Nuntis?”
“The men who crave flesh only do so during the full moon. They are only able to transform at the end of the cycle. But the sun-wolf is able to walk whenever they like. Only they can control the beast within. They alone have the power to be neither wolf nor man.”
A throbbing headache made its way from the base of my neck to the top of my forehead. I rubbed circles around my temples.
“I don’t know to control it. I just fall asleep, and then it happens.”
The woman smiled. “In time, you will.”
I doubted that. If anything, I would be the first one in history unable to control it. I could see that happening.
“But how are the men able to transform into wolves? How is that even possible?”
“Hundreds of years ago, explorers and their families from a faraway country came to the Blackpine forest. As the families settled down and built a small village, the men ventured off to hunt for food. The winter was harsh, and they were not prepared.
“A group became stranded on top of the Three Sister Mountains. They sought shelter from a terrible storm that threatened their lives.”
I knew that mountain well. It was the one that towered over the cabin.
“The blizzard continued for ten days, burying the men inside the cave. They became crazed and attacked each other. There was only one left. To survive, he ate the others, unaware of the curse of the Blackpine Forest. The man became a monster. “
“A wolf?” I whispered.
Miakoda nodded. “A vicious cannibal possessed by a spirit. With his brute strength, he was able to escape the cave and went on to attack the village, killing, dismembering and eating women, men, and children alike. The men who were lucky enough to survive turned, and the women died. Lycanthropy is poison in women’s veins.
“One last warning, sun wolf. The wolves will be drawn to you like flies to sweet tea. They will do their best to consume you. You will never be safe until they are all dead.” Miakoda stood up, wiped the backside of her dress and gave me a bright smile, as if she hadn’t told me to kill a bunch of people. She hobbled back into the first teepee.
“Great, I’m lucky enough to be the one who survives.”
Sho handed me a mug filled to the rim with hot chocolate. “Would you have rather died?”
“Maybe. I just think I’m going to screw this up somehow.” I took a sip of the drink, but it was so hot, it burned the tip of my tongue.
“Come on, it won’t be that bad. You just need to learn a little control—and who doesn’t want to shift into an animal?”
“That’s easy for you to say—you’re a peaceful raven. I’m the harbinger of death. That’s a big name to live up to.”
Sho laughed. “No one is forcing you to kill anyone. You have free will.”
“Do I?”
“Yeah, of course,” Sho said convincingly.
“She said the wolves will be drawn to me. The wolves that killed my dad will come after me.”
“And?” Sho whispered.
Everything became crystal clear, and I knew exactly what I had to do.
“And I have to kill them.” What I couldn’t do was fail. They all deserved to die after what they did to my dad. If I had the power to stop them, I would use it.
“You don’t have to,” Sho scoffed. “You’re your own person, not what some 100-year-old prophecy says you are.”
“I really do have to kill them. All my dad wanted to do was escape this shitty town, and they ate him. I don’t know why they did it, or who they are, but I’m going to find out.”
“You might die, Sunny. These wolves won’t hesitate to kill you.”
“Then you’d better help me.”
Sho looked at me and smiled.
“I guess I’d better.”
Chapter Seven
We walked down the mountain and through the reservation for a few minutes before Sho thought it would be best to take me home. We hopped into a red pick-up truck headed back to town.
“How did you know you could fly?” I asked.
“You sure have a lot of questions,” Sho mumbled, keeping his eyes glued to the winding road. “The truth is, I don’t know. It just happened. I was running around with a couple of friends and before I knew it, I was a raven.”
“Can you turn into anything else?”
“Yes.”
“Like what?”
“Bears, dogs, cats…but being a raven is what I’m mos
t comfortable with.”
“Can you turn into a wolf?”
Sho nodded, his body shifting uncomfortably in his seat. He tapped his index fingers against the steering wheel. “I can, but I don’t like it.”
I hummed in surprise. “Will you show me your other forms?”
“Why? Do you not believe me?” he snapped. His eyebrows furrowed but quickly recovered into a neutral frown.
“I do, but I’m just curious, and I want to see. You know, I’ll show you mine…you show me yours?” I snickered a little, but Sho didn’t respond. The scowl crossed his face once again.
Did I say something wrong? A finger made its way into my mouth. I tried to bite down on my nails, but they were too strong. If I could say one thing positive about being a wolf, it was that my nails looked amazing. They were actually at a length that I could paint them.
“Is it okay if I turn the radio on?” I whispered. I didn’t like the uncomfortable silence.
“Go ahead.”
I turned the dial until the buzzing died down and I found the voice of a woman. “In other news, the remains of a second young woman were discovered today. The details about the murder have not been released. Police have found several body parts not belonging to the victim on the scene, pushing the toll of missing women up to four. The people of Twin Cities have nicknamed the murderer the Frankenstein Ripper.”
Sho let out a deep, rumbling sigh. “Goblins…” He sounded disgusted.
“Goblins?”
“Sadistic bastards. They’re lust demons, always trying to build the perfect companions.”
“Demons are real?” I whispered.
“Yep. You shouldn’t be surprised—you’re a wolf.”
“H-h-how can you build a companion?”
“I don’t want to give you too many details. It’s pretty dark magic.”
“Magic is real?” I gulped, sucking back a deep breath of air.
“Unfortunately.” He didn’t sound too happy about that.
“So people can actually cast spells, like in the movies?”
“Only certain people can, like a witch, warlock or druid. They’re dying breed; you don’t run into one often.”
I grinned. I’d bet anything that in this moment I looked like a star struck child. “Woah.”
“Their magic is so diluted they can barely levitate a stick.”
“But they can levitate it.”
Sho shrugged nonchalantly. How could he be so cool with this? It felt as though my world was exploding into this magical place. I wanted to know more. Actually, I wanted to know every single itty bitty deal. Magic was real. All the movies and TV shows were right. I’m sure it wasn’t exactly how they portrayed it, but still.
I needed to find someone who could show me magic. My life goals were set: first, I would kill the wolves who ate my dad. Then, I would find someone to show me magic. If it took me the rest of my life, I would track down a magic user.
By the time we got back into my neighbourhood, the sun was starting to set. The house was dark and empty. I knew it would stay like that until Mom came home around six am. I didn’t want this night to be over, and I had a lot of things I wanted to ask Sho.
My heart almost stopped when I opened the front to door to find the house cleaner than it’d been in a long time. Everything was in order, and not a single beer can was in sight. The Disciples had actually listened to what I’d said. I was shocked and impressed. I didn’t know why they’d shifted their attitude towards me, but I liked it.
I invited Sho inside before flopping down onto the living room couch. It seemed he didn’t want this day to be over, either.
He explained that shifters and werewolves were completely different. Shifters inherited their abilities, unlike werewolves, who were infected. Shape shifters often picked one animal to turn into and stuck with it until they died.
“Are there any other types of weres? Or are there just werewolves?” This was one of the many thoughts that nagged at me.
Sho shook his head. “No, you can have werebats, werebears, wereswans...There can be pretty much were-anything.”
“And women can’t be any type of were?” It didn’t make sense.
“Women can be weres. Just not werewolves. It’s hard to explain. The werewolf virus doesn’t metabolize well into the female body, causing it to poison the blood stream. I’m sure one day, scientists will be able to figure out how to bypass it and infected women as well.”
“I don’t see why any women would want to sign up for that experiment.”
He shrugged. “Wolves are pack animals. If half of your pack is human, you have a problem if someone attacks you. If women could be infected, the pack’s strength would double.”
I guessed that made sense. “What if a shifter scratched a human?”
“Nothing would happen. Unless it got infected and you didn’t take care of it. “
I was a little confused over the technical rules about this magical community. Sho told me that werewolves thought of themselves as the kings of the weres only due to that fact that they outnumbered the others by at least double. My brain was reeling from the massive information dump. I rubbed circles around the tension points of my temples.
“Do you have anything to drink?” Sho hummed.
“I probably have some beer or water. Or I could also make coffee?”
“Sure. I’ll take a coffee.”
“It’s coming right up,” I said merrily, and turned to go towards the kitchen, but stopped midway to the room. My ears perked up. Something was outside.
I turned towards the living room. Sho must have heard it as well. He was already up on his feet, his finger pushed against his lips to tell me to be quiet. The living room window smashed into a thousand glittery pieces, and in whirled a severed head. The head spun in the air for a several seconds before landing on the wooden floor with a sickening thump.
I was frozen for few heartbeats. Sho rushed through the living room and out the front door. Tires squealed away just in time. My heart beat against my chest as I took a step towards the head. I fought the urge to scream, but instead crouched down to take a closer look. There was a sour odor; he must’ve been dead for several hours.
I couldn’t look away. Bruising and dried blood coated the base of his neck. His eyes were a murky white and the letter ‘P’ was carved perfectly into his temple.
“P?” I mumbled to myself. “What does that mean?”
I gulped as my eyes bounced back and forth through the living room, looking for either my cellphone or the house phone. After a few once overs, I found my phone sticking out between the cushion and coach.
“Who should I call? The Disciples? Mom? The police?” A finger made its way into my mouth and I tried my hardest to bite the nail, without any luck.
“No one,” huffed Sho. “If we call the police, they’ll just tell the Disciples—and remember, we aren’t supposed to be together. Same with your mom.”
“But…” My eyes found the head again as my voice trailed off.
“Listen, I called a few of my friends. They’ll be here in fifteen, and will deal with the head.”
“What about the…”
Sho finished the sentence. “And they’ll fix the window.”
“What do you think the P means? And why would they throw it into my house?”
Sho rolled his lips. “Power? Peter? Pumpkin? Pussycat?”
I laughed. I knew it was in bad taste—this man had died and we had no means of knowing the reason. A ripple of guilt rushed through my stomach. Did this man have a family who missed him? “Come on, let’s be serious.”
“Well, if you want to be serious, it probably has something to do with the Disciples. Those guys know how to piss off the wrong people.”
“How would you know that?”
“They’ve tried to take down the tribe a couple times, and have thrown a few empty threats to my father.”
“Oh…sorry,” I whispered.
“Hey.” He g
ently grabbed my hand and gave it a little tug. “It’s not your fault. The tribe is strong and resourceful.”
He was spot on with the amount of time it took for his friends to come over. There were three of them. Two were identical twins. They were quite overweight, both with shoulder length hair and tribal symbol tattoos covering their necks. The last one was scrawny, with a neat trimmed haircut and blue rimmed glasses. They spoke for a while in a language I assumed was Nokado. All I did was sit on the couch, and feel a little left out. The men all laughed together, looked at me, and continued working.
I didn’t know what was so funny about a severed head in my living room.
The scrawny one popped out the leftover glass and replaced it with a new pane. It didn’t take him long at all. This couldn’t have been his first time fixing a window.
A wave of relief washed over me and I clapped my hands together gently. The man looked at me without any ounce of humor or emotion before he took the glass out of the house.
I gulped and tried to bite down on a finger. I couldn’t help but to think they hated my guts. I didn’t know why. I’d never met them before, but my best guess was that I was too closely tied to the Disciples. That made me feel a little shitty. I mean, at school I wasn’t Disciple enough, and now with Sho’s friends, I was too much of one.
“Sunny?” Sho’s voice jerked me out of my pity party. “Are you feeling okay? You look like you’re pretty deep in thought.” His face scrunched in worry.
I shrugged. “I’m fine.” I gave him a smile I hoped would dissolve his concerned feelings.
“Do you have any cleaning supplies?”
I wanted to say something snarky but decided against it. Instead, I nodded, headed for the kitchen, and grabbed plastic gloves, industrial spray and a giant black garbage bag from underneath the sink.
“You don’t have to be here for this.” Sho grabbed the supplies and divided them out to the twins. “I can handle this for you.”
“It’s okay,” I muttered. “I have nowhere else to go, and I really don’t want to be alone.”
“You could go to sleep?"
“Nah. I don’t think I’ll be doing much of that tonight.”
Our eyes met as he nodded in understanding.
It took about an hour for everything to be bloodless and all the glass cleaned up. The men never once said a single word to me in that whole time, even after I thanked them. They gave Sho quick hugs and pound outs before heading on their way.
