He glanced once in the flimsy rear view mirror before they rounded the corner but what he saw had to have been a trick of the smoke or his own mind playing tricks on him. Lia was too concerned with Lorelei, one hand stretched out to grip the dash, and the other wrapped around her grandmother’s shoulder, to notice, and he sealed his mouth. It had to be my own paranoia, he thought, but somehow he couldn’t shake it off.
In the mirror, he was certain, he’d seen four wolves emerge from the timberline, their lean forms gigantic and silhouetted by the dying blaze. And their eyes, like flakes of topaz, following the Ford pickup as it burned down the road. I must have been imagining it, he repeated to himself, but he could scarcely keep his hands on the pickup’s leather steering wheel.
Chapter Nine
Jake pushed the old Ford as hard as the engine could take it, and by the time they reached his cabin he was certain he’d need some dental treatment to replace all his fillings from the bumpy road. The truck lurched to a stop behind his car and he heard a violent pop as the beast backfired, and he could smell the burning of oil and metal.
He and Lia managed to make a sling by holding their arms together and having Lorelei sit on them, and as they set her down on the old couch in front of the fireplace he was surprised to see that the arm didn’t look quite as bad as he’d remembered. There was still a lot of dried blood on the sleeve, but at least it wasn’t crooked any longer. He had to give it to the old gal, she hadn’t screamed or complained once, just closed her eyes and disappeared into a self-induced trance.
“We need a doctor, Lia. That arm doesn’t look good, and besides that, we don’t know how much smoke she inhaled,” he tried to press her again.
“I’ll take care of it,” she said, heading to the old landline and dialing in a number that Jake couldn’t see, but it was more than three digits.
“I think we should call the cops, too,” he said, pacing back and forth.
“No cops,”
“Geezus, no cops, no doctors, no hospitals! Lia what’s going on?” he half-shouted, and he saw Lorelei stir on the couch and give her granddaughter a puzzled look.
Lia held up her hand and said a few short words to someone on the other end and hung up before facing him. She had that calmness in her features that reminded Jake of military training, the kind that let you forget your emotions, or at least put them on hold, until you were ready to deal with them.
“Irma’s on her way,” she announced.
“The baker? You called a pie baker instead of an ambulance or the cops!” Jake exclaimed.
“Sit down,” Lia said, indicating for him to take a seat beside Lorelei, who was already trying to sit up on her own.
“I deserve an explanation,” Jake said, and he saw another glance pass between the two women, “whatever it is, I don’t care. Just tell me what’s going on.”
“He’s gonna figure it out when Irma arrives,” Lorelei shrugged, “might as well spill the beans now.”
Jake looked to Lia, and saw her hunched over, her elbows on her knees and face buried between her hands. She was shaking again, and the tendons of her forearms were taut. Finally she collected herself, but she still refused to look Jake directly in the eyes, even though he kept inviting her to.
“I’m not normal, Jake,” she said.
“That’s an understatement.”
“I mean, I’m not… I’m barely human. You know those stories, the legend about the family that settled here who could transform into wolves? Everything… the history… even the constellation.”
“The girl who was bitten and transformed so she could feed her village.”
“There’s a grain of truth in every mythology,” Lorelei interjected, “most folks think of them as parables, you know, stories told to children to instill morals. But sometimes, those legends are real. Putting them into the form of a fable just let us keep telling the stories without having to worry about revealing ourselves.”
Jake felt his eyebrow lift uncontrollably, and his hands tightened into fists. “What do you mean ‘revealing’?” he asked very slowly, dreading what the answer might be.
“We’re wolves, Jake,” Lia said and raised her face. “Shapeshifters to be more exact.” Her eyes had suddenly taken on a gold hue, as if she were staring out through a lens of frozen amber.
Jake gulped.
“My grandmother was a woman named Eliza,” Lorelei said, “when she was a child she lived in the east with her parents. Her parents were a number of exiles who had once belonged to the main tribe. Unhappy with some of the policies that the leadership had begun to exercise, her parents and others had decided to disband and live peacefully in seclusion.”
“You expect me to believe this? That you’re… what, werewolves?”
Lorelei’s eyes narrowed under her large eyebrows. “Again, that’s a misnomer, dear. Please listen. Eliza’s parents were hunted down by the tribe. A new power shift had taken place, and the decision had been made to eliminate all the exiles… they came in the middle of the night. Eliza was able to escape down river in a canoe, but her parents were slaughtered by soldiers of the main tribe. Eliza successfully escaped, but it didn’t mean she was out of danger. Eventually she found other exiles who were being hunted too and together they headed west, hoping to outrun the tribe’s executioners. Many of them, including Eliza, eventually settled here, a place where they could live peacefully. And yet, we’ve always lived under the banner of fear, never certain when or if the tribe will find us.”
“This is crazy, you realize?” Jake snapped.
“Oh, yes,” Lorelei replied without hesitation, “but the fact of the matter is, you’re now involved. And it looks like the tribe has somehow found us.” She waited for Jake’s to light up as he recalled the wolfish shapes that had come out of the trees when they’d fled the acreage.
“The bikers,” he said, putting the pieces together.
Lia nodded. “I think… I think they were looking for me. I’m always so careful… and yet it was me. I was the one that led them to you,” she said, facing Lorelei and lowering her head in shame.
Lorelei shook her head and put a hand on the young girl’s shoulder. “It’s not your fault, my precious. Not in the least. You’ve always been good at hiding, and I know how much that’s cost you. No, they were probably mapping us out long before this happened.”
“This is too much to take in,” Jake said standing up and began to pace again. “If you’re not… werewolves… then what are you?”
“Lycanthropes. Shapeshifters. Cultures have all sorts of names for us, but we ourselves don’t have a name. We’re just like you, except occasionally we aren’t. For us, it’s not practical or useful to have to refer to ourselves like that,” Lia said.
“But you are different,” Jake pointed out, and suddenly realized how prejudiced a comment that sounded. What does it matter if Lia’s different? It doesn’t change who she is, it doesn’t change how I feel about her or the times we’ve shared. Still, the thought that such creatures actually existed was a blow to his grip on reality.
“Am I really that different, now that you know?” Lia asked, and there was a pang of hurt in her voice.
Jake scratched his head and let out a chuckle and walked towards her. She seemed to stiffen, unsure of how he was going to react, but he gave her a gentle smile and reached to touch her cheek again. “I suppose not. I’m sorry, it’s just… even for a writer, it’s a bit much to take in,” he said, “the wolf I almost hit on the road, when I first came here… that was you, wasn’t it?”
Lia blushed and nodded. “I’m sorry,”
“Lorelei’s right, you got nothing to be sorry for. And now that I know, you’re right, I am involved. But what do we do?”
“They won’t stop,” Lorelei said diffidently, “not until they’re sure all exiles and their descendants are eliminated.”
“But why?”
The old woman shrugged. “They see us a threat to their sovereignty. Old hatreds di
e hard, Jake.”
Lia’s head suddenly perked up and her eyes widened. Second later Jake heard the sound of a car engine and raced to the window. A small blue pickup was cutting corners and b-lining for the cottage, but when Lia saw it she recognized it as Irma’s vehicle.
Irma hopped out and was up the stairs in a sprint, and nodded once at Jake as she burst into the cottage and headed toward Lorelei, who greeted her with a smile and a wave. Jake pulled Lia aside and motioned toward the portly baker who had brought a small red First Aid kit with her and was administering something to the older lady.
“I take it Irma knows, too?”
Lia nodded. “There are some families in Barrelgrove that know, families that have been here just as long as mine. They accepted us, regardless. And some, like Irma, have carried the secret down through the generations. They’re our allies, which are few and far between these days.”
“I see,”
“C’mon, you’ll see,” Lia said, pulling him by the arm.
Irma had unzipped the medical kit, but instead of bandages and the usual instruments, it was filled with a number of differently colored vials, a syringe, and what looked like home-made tinctures. She selected one that had a worn and faded label on the side, squinted at it, and nodded to herself with some satisfaction. She reached into the kit and pulled out a hypodermic needle and filled the syringe with the dark amber fluid. Jake gave an unsettled look to Lia, who merely pointed back to the operation with her eyes.
“Guess you got more than you bargained for with your visit, huh?” Irma said, eyeing Jake.
“Guess you could say that,”
“When Lia called I came as soon as I could. I didn’t see anyone on the way here, but I can’t be certain I wasn’t followed. If they knew where to find you, Lorelei, then they might’ve scouted out the whole town, for all we know.”
“It’s a risk,” Lorelei agreed, and pulled up the sleeve on her injured arm. There wasn’t any breakage of the skin, but Jake could see that the bone had definitely broken and there was a massive contusion around the impact. Once again he was amazed at the endurance of the woman – here she was carrying on a calm and collected conversation when she must have been in agonizing pain.
Irma looked back up at Jake as she fiddled with the underside of Lorelei’s arm, looking for a vein. “See, unlike fairy tales, our friends here don’t change only under the full moon or a shifter’s moon as we like to call it. I have no idea where that part of their mythology came from. Most folks can change at will, or it can be triggered if they have a strong emotional reaction to something. Lorelei here is wounded, so it’s more difficult for her to change. Over the years we’ve developed some serums to assist with their transformation, healing processes, and the like.”
“You’re going to change right here?” Jake exclaimed.
“Don’t be alarmed,” Lorelei smiled dreamily as the needle went in and Irma injected the serum, “but you and Lia had best get the curtains. It’d be hard to explain a large wolf dozing in your living room.”
The two obeyed and covered both main windows and hit the blinds on the kitchen’s before returning. Irma had zippered up her medical kit and was standing back. Jake took the cue and joined her, watching as the old woman turned and her eyes closed tightly, almost as if she were in pain.
“Here it comes,” Irma said, “I’ve induced her wolf form, it will help her heal faster.”
There was a sound like fabric being torn and Lorelei squirmed. Jake was about to rush forward but Lia put her arm in front of him and shook her head. He watched as Lorelei’s face contorted, and then another sound, like muscle being ripped and reassembled, shook the air, and the old woman began to transform in front of them. The dress around Lorelei’s frame burst, causing little clouds of ash to erupt from the fabric, and he saw a thick blackish grey fur sprout from her flesh. He was reminded of time-lapse photography of seeds sprouting from the earth, twirling frenetically toward daylight.
It was all over in a matter of minutes. Where Lorelei had once been lying a massive grey timber wolf now rested, its long hair cascading over its gaunt limbs. But it had the same eyes as Lorelei, deep penetrating yellow irises that looked at him with a degree of understanding and compassion. But there was also a warning in her gaze. If you are friend, I will protect you to the end. If you are foe, I will kill you without a second thought.
It was a primal sort of understanding. One which was dictated by the laws of nature, and he found himself not only compelled to return the promise, but as his hand slid down and found Lia’s fingers, he knew he would do whatever it took to protect them both.
“Go ahead,” Lia said, motioning him toward the wolf.
Slowly he made several steps toward the wolf, and it lowered the massive lope of its head. The couch creaked under the weight of the creature, who was now probably a good four feet on him if it had stood on its hind legs, and who easily met him at eye level as he approached.
“I guess,” he gulped, “I owe you an apology.”
The wolf pulled back its lips to reveal glistening fangs in what he imagined was Lorelei’s cunning smile, and extended his hand. The wolf sniffed it and licked it in a gesture of friendship. He noticed that its front paw was still injured and that it was limping. Its muzzle wrinkled in an expression of pain and he reached out and touched the creature’s head.
“How long will it take for her to heal?” he asked to no one in particular.
“It depends,” Irma said after a moment, and walked forward to examine the wolf with the same demeanor you’d approach a house pet with and scratched her head. “She’ll be vulnerable until then. I don’t know how long the serum will let her stay in this form.”
“We can’t stay here. If the others found us this easily, it won’t take them long to pick up the scent and come here. We need to get here somewhere safe,” Lia said.
“We need to get you both out of here,” Jake said.
“No. No, she may let me off the hook, but I can’t believe that I didn’t somehow lead them here. The first time I saw them at the store, I should have picked up on it. I’ve let my senses dull, I’ve let my guard down… this happened because of me,” she said defiantly.
Jake turned and was about to grip her by the shoulders when she flashed him a scowl and he dropped his arms. “Lia….”
“Irma, are there any sanctuaries nearby?”
Irma looked up from her examination of the wolf’s paw and her eyes darted around in her skull before she finally answered. “Now that you mention it… there is an old church, up past Carter, but that’s half a day from here. I know the pastor there, though, he’s a friend. He knows the situation, and he could probably get Lia somewhere safe… there’s a number of other communities to the north near Seattle and into Canada.”
“Then that’s where you’ll take her,” Lia said.
Jake slapped his knee.
“Listen! I don’t know what we’re up against, granted… but you’re coming too.”
“I can’t… they’re looking for exiles. They have too much of a lead on us.”
“So what are you planning on doing?”
“I’ll give them an exile,” she said flatly, and before Jake could argue added, “it’ll give Irma enough time to get grandmother to safety, and for you to get out of town.”
“I’m not just leaving you,” he replied, but there was a helpless quality in his voice. Can I really stop her, he thought. He hadn’t planned on getting involved in a supernatural blood feud, but as soon as he had stepped over that invisible line in the sand everything else had fallen away. He stepped in front of her, and for once she was startled by his steadfastness.
“Jake, this isn’t your fight…”
“Bullshit,” he said, “I know it’s crazy. Hell, this is definitely not how I planned to spend my time writing my book. But I’m here. And you’re here, and I’m not leaving you.”
Lia turned her head away quickly and he reached out and gripped her shoulder.<
br />
“You don’t understand. They’ll kill you… just to get to me, and I’m not…” she choked, and tried to turn away again but he grabbed her other shoulder and forced her to look at him.
“Maybe I just met you. But I love you, Lia. That’s all,” he said with finality.
Lia didn’t know what to say and merely blinked. He wondered if anyone, other than Lorelei, had ever told her that they loved her, and by the look of surprise and guilt that washed across her eyes he imagined it was very few. Her eyes filled with tears and she tried to look away but he held firm until she finally met his own gaze. She was trembling uncontrollably with her attempts to hide her fears and appear brave, but suddenly it had all crumbled away and he felt a twinge of pain. I just want to protect you, he thought.
“If you love me… then you’ll trust me,” she finally managed to murmur, “I’m the only one that can stand against them. I don’t intend to die. But I need you… to protect grandmother. Please.”
That please crippled him and he stared helplessly at her. The part of him that knew she was right, that he had no chance of standing against the other wolves, that he would only be a hindrance, that the most logical decision would be to ensure that Lorelei made it to safety, fought a battle with the other side of him that now loved Lia. He gritted his teeth and shut his eyes, and his hands tightened around her shoulders. She knew it too.
“Lia…” he repeated, and he felt her hand cup his cheek. He looked at her and there was a sadness in her eyes, but she smiled anyway.
“I’ll catch up with you… I promise,” she said, and he bent down and kissed her.
They held each other for several long moments, and felt Lia cling to him as if it were for the last time, and he squeezed her, trying to will time to slow down so that he could live within their embrace. Behind him he heard Irma clear her throat, and he slowly pulled apart. Lia’s cheeks were wet with her tears and her eyes were like black pools. He wished he could plunge into them, but the imminent danger that surrounded them pushed its way to the front of his mind.
Shifter's Moon (Paranormal Shifter Romance) Page 7
