Howl for Me

by Lynn Red

“Thank you,” he said. “I… I don’t know if I’ve ever said that and meant it. But, what you’re doing means the world to me.”

  “Shh,” I whispered, rubbing my thumbs in circles above Devin’s eyebrows.

  Almost instantly, he was out.

  I gasped, loudly, and felt myself pulled into him. Our souls joined, like they were being shoved through a really tiny sieve. I felt tightness, tension, and then finally electricity surged from my hands, all the way to my feet, igniting my entire being.

  “Talk to me, Lily,” Poko said, shaking my shoulder. “Lily?”

  “It’s starting,” I heard myself say, in the distance. “I see some kind of building – an old apartment, or something. Someone’s calling him.”

  I felt Poko’s ancient hand on my neck.

  “Stay with me, but stay, too, with him. You must find the Blight, Lily.”

  “There’s… there’s fire,” I moaned, rocking back and forth.

  “I’ll keep you safe,” I heard the old man say, but then, as I merged fully with Devin’s remembrances, his voice faded.

  It wasn’t just a memory of fire. It was fire. His whole mind was flooded with heat, and panic, and fear, and horror. Screaming and smoke, and the feel of scorching hot metal against his skin, made me lurch and twist.

  I – living, once again, in Devin’s memory – stumbled through a half-broken wooden door, bursting it from the hinges.

  “Mom!” I shouted. “Where are you? What happened? Mom!”

  Devin dropped the bag of groceries in his arms. Eggs clattered along the floor, and one of them exploded from the heat.

  His screaming hurt his throat, and every time he breathed in, the smoke made my lungs burn.

  “I’m here,” I heard, from off in the distance. “Back… in my… room…”

  Devin was blinded by smoke. He couldn’t do anything but grope around in the burning heat, trying to find a way through. Strangely though, the way to the hotel room he shared with his mother, was boarded up.

  “Where?” Devin called, in a ragged, almost hollow, voice. “I can’t see anything.”

  “Back!”

  The voice was barely audible, but it was there. “All the way back! Hurry! The ceiling, it’s…”

  In another moment of singular fury, the kind I’d almost started growing accustomed to, Devin threw back his arms and screamed his rage. Hair exploded from his pores, his muscles swelled big and tight and hard, and he tore into the first boards blocking up the hallway.

  I felt the pain in his fists, in his shoulders – the scorching agony of fire, burning away his fur, scarring his face – but still, he kept on.

  “I’m,” he gasped, “I’m through. How far back? Which door?”

  “Last… on the… left…”

  Her voice was barely perceptible at the end, but the whimpering that followed was easy to hear. Shielding his face, Devin pushed forward, stumbled over a fallen, broken, still-burning timber.

  Above him, a huge crack caught Devin’s attention. He shot his gaze upward just in time to see the ceiling split open. A support beam, big and heavy and burning, tumbled down on top of him.

  “No!” Devin screamed. “No! My leg!”

  He wrenched his ankle back and forth, but it was no good. The board fell across his left leg, pinning it to the ground. Devin clawed at his foot, almost like he was trying to rip it off. He tried to push against the giant log with his other leg, then with his arms, but he couldn’t get any leverage.

  “Mom!” he shouted. “I’m trapped! I’m… I’m burning! I won’t leave you, though.”

  Scrabbling against the ground, Devin managed to free one arm and pushed up. The board, lightening just a little as the flames burned through it, gave slightly.

  “I’m… I’m getting out from under it,” Devin yelled. “I’m about to…”

  “No you’re not,” a voice from above Devin, said.

  And then, whoever was standing there kicked his arm out from underneath him and laughed as Devin’s chin cracked against the sagging floor.

  “Let me up!” Devin shouted. “My mother… I have to—”

  “You have to be quiet, pup.”

  Devin looked up, mouth agape, at the figure in front of him. The feet were twisted claws, the legs, slate gray tree trunks. Whoever it was, his face was so far up that Devin couldn’t make out any details. All he could see were thick, white braids hanging down either side.

  “I… who are you?” Devin asked.

  “I am your destiny,” the voice boomed. “You were meant to be here, and I was meant to find you. You’ll bring me back… You’ll make me whole.”

  “What?” Devin shielded his eyes from the fire. “You weren’t here a second ago. What’s going on?”

  “You don’t know anything of your past, do you, pup?”

  The huge, gray wolf-man put the heel of his clawed foot on the back of Devin’s neck, and pressed. “You’re… innocent, despite your string of crimes.”

  For a moment, Devin scratched at the ground, struggling to get free.

  “Stop,” the voice boomed. “You’ve no hope of getting away. I’ll make you a deal. Since you seem so ignorant, it shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

  “What?” Devin cried out. “Save my Ma and me, and I’ll do anything!”

  “You needn’t do very much at all,” the creature said, withdrawing its foot. “All I need is to look in your eyes.”

  With no effort at all, the creature lifted Devin away from the ground, simply sliding the burning board off him. At once, all the pain stopped.

  The burning, the blistered flesh, the scorching pain… It all just stopped.

  “Look at my eyes, pup,” the monster said. “Look on me, now.”

  Devin shook his head from side to side, unconsciously fighting the great beast that held him, helpless, like a baby. When he resisted, a flame licked the bottom of his foot.

  “You’ll open your eyes, or I’ll let your mother burn, right where she lays. I’m eternal, child. I’ve no care for the lives of mortals.”

  Devin’s opened his eyes, more out of shock, than anything. When he did, the fires around him were nothing, to the agony blasting through his brain.

  “You… ah!” he cried. “You’re killing me! No!”

  Every inch of Devin’s twelve-year-old body ached.

  White heat burrowed through his skull, spreading like hellfire through his mind, then down his spine, and outward. Everywhere he had nerves, Devin hurt. He wrenched to the left, then the right, trying to get away from whatever it was holding him, from whatever awful force kept him off the ground.

  “It feels good, pup! So good! You have no idea what a favor you’ve done! I won’t forget your kindness.”

  “No!” Devin cried out, lifting his hands to his face. “No! I can’t! Stop! You’re killing me! You’re—”

  Devin hit the ground with a heavy thump.

  He was alone. And the ground was cold.

  Before opening his eyes again, Devin ran his hands along the ground. The wood was smooth, bubbled from the fire, but cool to the touch, like ancient, petrified wood.

  He touched his face. The scars from his father’s torture were gone. The teeth he’d been missing since he was seven were right where they were supposed to be.

  Slowly, he climbed to his feet.

  “Ma?” Devin called out. “You there?”

  His mother’s answer was warbling, confused and intoxicated, but she was calling him. She was still alive.

  Devin took a step forward. For the first time in his recent memory, his ankle didn’t pop. It was broken when he was six, but never set. It grew back crooked and gave him a limp. But now? He walked straight and tall.

  “What was that thing?” Devin asked himself, taking another stop forward, and twisting his neck until it popped.

  That didn’t hurt, either. Turning his head had always hurt. That injury was so old he didn’t even know what gave it to him.

  He felt like a new person
– a new wolf. Whoever it was he’d seen had healed him of everything his father had done. All those years of horror had just vanished in a flash. Just like the flash of the gun when his ma shot his dad in the stomach.

  Devin looked down the hallway. It was all burned, there was no wallpaper left, no texture on the walls or the ceiling, but it was all black obsidian, as though the fire was fifteen years before, and it had all worn smooth.

  “Devin?”

  His mom’s voice floated from the doorway that he hadn’t realized he’d reached.

  “What’re you doing?” she asked. Her voice was thick and fell over itself. “Where are the eggs?”

  He looked around, but… just couldn’t remember. He had them just a moment before. Something flickered in his left eye. He lost vision for just a second, but he shook his head, and it was back.

  Nothing to worry about, he thought. Everything was right. Better than right.

  “I… don’t know,” he said. “No idea, actually. Was there a fire?”

  When he walked into his mom’s one-room studio, there were no signs of any kind of disturbance.

  “Looks like there was a fire in the hall,” he said.

  “No, not that I know of, but there’s always some crack head making problems,” she replied. “Where are the eggs?”

  Devin grinned. He’d never felt like this before. So alive, so strong, and so… powerful.

  “I’ll go get more,” he said.

  “What about the money, babe?” his mom asked. “That was the last of the money.”

  He shook his head, his hair falling across his face. Somehow, he knew it didn’t matter.

  “It’ll be fine,” he said. “I’ve got a plan.”

  I jolted back into myself, as a bird outside Devin’s dilapidated hotel screeched.

  “Oh, my God,” I gasped. “I think I saw it. I saw Blight.”

  “You’re sure?” Poko asked.

  Poko cocked his head to one side. He looked past me and wagged a finger at an unseen spirit. “Never mind that,” he said and then turned back to me. “You saw Jacarth? You’re sure?”

  “Yeah,” I said, nodding. “He looked just like he did when I saw him at that campground with… with the bodies.”

  “Hum,” Poko grunted, tapping his cane against one of the stones by his fire. “You’re sure that’s when it happened? When the great beast entered Devin?”

  “Yeah,” I said, looking right into the middle of the roaring flame. “And I found out more about him. More bad things.”

  Poko shifted his weight and groaned a little, then coughed softly.

  “Tell me – how old was he, when the monster entered his soul?”

  Devin groaned, but then resumed snoring beside us.

  “Twelve,” I said in a stone cold voice. “He went out for groceries.”

  Out of nowhere, I felt myself lurch to one side and then the other. My soul was fighting to get free. It had something to tell me, something to show me.

  “Lily!” I heard Poko shout. I felt his hand on my arm. “Lily, be careful!”

  His voice was an echo. It was just a memory.

  As soon as I was looking down from the sky, I knew what I had to do. I had to find him.

  “Where are you?” I asked the lonely darkness. “I know you have to be out here, somewhere.”

  I looked west first, and saw nothing except desert. I extended my gaze eastward, searching. There, on the edge of the desert, where the forests began, I saw an advancing line of flame.

  Motorcycles roared, catching my attention. I streaked across the sky until I was directly over them, looking down. Two of the bikes were joined by a chain, which dragged a matte metal platform.

  As my spirit settled into motion with them, I got low enough to the ground to see what they were carrying.

  Joram Blight.

  His eyes shot open, catching me for just a second.

  It was like steel wrapped around my ankles. As soon as he saw me, I was dragged down, lower and lower. I struggled, fighting against the horrible gravity pulling me down, thrashing my invisible body.

  He smiled a grim, awful smile, and then closed his eyes again, completely at peace.

  Nothing in the entire world – nothing I’d seen in Devin’s memories – no fight I’d seen Damon fight had ever horrified me as much as that smile.

  Joram Blight just let me go. And that’s what it was. Compared to him, I was nothing. A powerless, Fae child, floating around in the air, playing at power I didn’t understand.

  Joram Blight understood it perfectly. No. He didn’t understand power – he was power.

  “Lily!” My shoulders shook.

  “Lily, come back to me,” Poko said, rattling me so hard that I thought he was going to give me whiplash. “You were gone. I saw your face go pale and your lips go white. I was afraid you’d been taken.”

  “I was,” I said. “But then, he let me go.”

  Poko frowned, deep lines framing his mouth, all the way to his chin.

  “You saw him then?” he asked. “Where?”

  “Close,” I said. “We don’t have much time.”

  “Go, then,” Poko said, his voice halting. “Get Damon. Get Hunter. We have another companion coming from Scagg’s Valley, who you may know. An old man, a shaman, called Wilton. Though, he’s more to attend to me, than to fight.”

  “Wilton?” I said, gathering myself. I started toward the mouth of the cave. “Why would he be coming?” I knew the answer. I hated the answer, but I knew it.

  “Poko, are you saying that you’re—”

  “I am very old, child. Older than you know. Older than I know. But I am at peace. I know my pack is in good hands. I can go with the spirits now, and I can go happily. Don’t worry yourself about this. This old body has some time left. Go, Lily. Bring Damon.”

  For the second time in about an hour, I choked back tears. Just the thought of being without Poko was too much. I turned so he wouldn’t see the tears he didn’t want me crying, but I’m sure he knew what I was doing.

  “Lily,” he called out, just as they ran down my face with a vengeance. “I also know what you’ve told only Damon. I saw the pride in your eyes, and in his. I never imagined I’d be such a… a happy man, when my time came, to join the spirits.”

  I turned back and ran to his side, wrapping my arms around his tiny frame. He stroked my hair and kissed my cheek.

  “Everything is fine, dear child,” Poko said. “We will have time to say our goodbyes. And I’ll be with you, always, watching you and Damon, and the young wolf growing in your belly. He’s a boy, you know.” A smile stretched across his thin face. “Of course you know.”

  I rocked back on my heels, looking him in the face.

  “Thank you for everything, Poko,” I said. “I don’t even want to imagine what my life would have been like…”

  He chuckled.

  “Don’t thank me for that,” he said. “I don’t make fate. Thank the world for existing in the first place. She’s listening to you. For your kind, she’s always listening. Now go, and bring back my heir.”

  I gave him one last squeeze, took his ancient hand, and touched it to my cheek. He smiled gently at me with such kindness, that my heart melted all over again.

  “I love you, too, Lily,” he said, without my having said it first. He must’ve felt it in what I did. “You’ve given me everything I’ve ever wanted. You’ve made an old man’s last days ones of peace. Now go. We’ve got a fight to end before we can say those goodbyes.”

  As I ran to my car, my first thought was that I hoped those goodbyes never came. A wolf howled in the distance.

  I looked at the moon, as it dipped about halfway below the horizon, and dawn started to gray the sky. Even when his body was gone, we’d still be able to hear him howl, I realized. That helped a little.

  Suddenly, it struck me to do just what Poko said – to talk to the earth.

  I froze, with my hand on the handle of the driver door.

&n
bsp; “Whatever happens,” I said, my cheeks burning with a feeling of embarrassment for a moment, before I felt a strange, soothing coolness of peace slide over me. “Let us… Let us have a chance to say goodbye.”

  As soon as I finished, I felt warm, like someone was holding me. And then it was gone, invisible arms slipping up, and off my shoulders.

  Swallowing hard, I climbed up, turned on the engine, and decided I was done with tears. It was time for me to be as tough as I needed to be.

  -17-

  “No time,” I said, opening the door and starting to talk, as soon as I was in. “We gotta go.”

  No one was around. I shook my head. Of course they weren’t up. It was just past six in the morning when I got home. What did I think this was? I heard a groan and a bedframe squeak from down the hall, where Damon and I slept.

  “Damon?” I called out. “Hurry up, get Hunter. We gotta go. Poko wants us all to go there and get ready, together. Damon? Where are you?”

  The squeaking kept on, and I realized it was coming from the other direction. I pursed my lips and put my hands on my hips. It was really hard not to laugh.

  Damon’s head popped out of our bedroom, and his face immediately lit up. “Hey!” he said. “Everything okay at the cave?”

  I shook my head.

  “He’s coming. We gotta go. Poko thinks it won’t be long, before…”

  I had to stop myself from saying “He’s gonna be dead,” and keep my mind on what mattered right then.

  “Before what? What’s the rush? Cat showed up a few minutes ago, and, er…”

  He trailed off, to a short chorus of squeaking bed, and a groan that was a little louder than it was probably meant to be. I blushed, then Damon laughed, and reeled me in for a kiss.

  “We really don’t have time for that,” I said. “We need to get to Poko.”

  The squeaking got really fast for a second. The fact that Damon and I got to laugh about something for a second let me release just a little tension.

  I knew it was going to be okay – I just knew it – but, I also wasn’t so stupid to think there weren’t going to be a lot of wounds, and a lot of loss.

  When Hunter finally emerged from the back of the house, he didn’t even bother to pretend he was embarrassed. He and Damon just went straight to work.