by Sonja Bair
Meanwhile, Gina’s adoptive parents had made it halfway down the hill. Julia’s arms were stretched toward her daughter and Amir charged downward at reckless speed. Gina turned toward them, sat back, and put her hands on her knees. After a moment of rest, she gingerly pulled one leg underneath her, then the other, and stood up. She swayed unsteadily before planting her feet in a wide stance and raised her hands to her head. Her words, shouted to her parents, were lost to the wind, but Julia must have heard, as she stopped her descent and fell to her knees. Amir paused for a moment, sorrow and shock evident in his frozen stance, but after a few seconds, visibly pulled himself back into the moment and continued to rush toward his daughter. Gina stood straighter, balled her fists, and screamed something at Amir. Pointing at the car and then pointing to her father, she continued to yell. Julia, still on her knees, pulled at her hair and screamed to the sky.
From my spectator’s spot high above, I watched the distance between father and daughter decrease. Gina continued to scream and wave her arms wildly but started limping toward her father, then picked the pace up to a run, then to a sprint. Her shape dissolved and between one leap and another, she became a werewolf. Her clothes, already in tatters, disintegrated to shreds as she became thicker, bigger, and terribly fiercer. The distance between the two was now only a few feet, and her powerful muscles bunched then released as the red werewolf exploded into the air, launching herself at Amir. He stumbled back, but it was too late. Gina’s teeth surrounded his neck and, with a jerk of her head, a spray of blood erupted.
As Amir fell, his hands flayed weakly at the monster, but the speed and savagery of the attack was too great. Gina held her death grip as they hit the earth. Blood flowed over her neck and down her haunches, but within seconds became indistinguishable from her own crimson-colored fur. She shook the entire front half of her body, whipping Amir’s head from side to side. His body twitched once, twice, and then was motionless. Releasing her death grip, she howled at the sky as blood and bits of flesh dripped down her muzzle. Mid-howl, she stopped and flashed a look up the hill. Julia remained on her knees, silent and still as a statue. Gina and Julia stared at each other as the seconds dragged on. Not breaking eye contact, Julia sluggishly stood up and stripped off her clothes. Her transformation to a werewolf was painfully slow, muscles and bones only reluctantly twisting and reshaping to a lupine form. Remaining in her own wolf form, Gina stared up at her, shoulders hunched, lips curled back, and muscles quivering.
Transformation complete, the golden brown wolf on the hill shook herself, the twist starting with her head and ending through the tail. When she stilled, the hesitation of her former self was gone and she launched herself down the slope. Gina remained motionless, waiting for the fight to reach her on the flat land. Gravel and rocks sprayed to the side of the charging golden wolf, her fur bristling straight up from her haunches down to her tail. The moment before Julia would crash into her daughter, Gina sidestepped sharply, and Julia flew by her. Gina took advantage of the slip and launched herself, teeth bared, at her mother. She managed to pin her down for a moment, but using incredible flexibility, Julia twisted her hindquarters, contorting her body to wrench herself away from Gina. The two were separated for a half a second before they both attacked, ending up in an embrace that would look comforting if it weren’t for the massive fangs aiming for the vulnerable spot under each other’s chins. Back and forth they struggled, first one pinning and blooding the other, then through tremendous amounts of strength and flexibility, breaking free and reversing the hold.
I closed my eyes. The unnatural fatigue continued to prevent me from raising a finger to intercede, but that didn’t mean I had to watch. The distance muted the noise, but the snarls and barks still made it up to the overlook. Although it seemed like an eternity, perhaps three minutes later, a noise somewhere between a howl and a scream caused my eyes to pop open. Gina, halfway between wolf and human, stood with one foot on top of her motionless, bloodied mother. Her mouth gradually dissolved from a canine muzzle back into a human mouth. Then, bending down, she tenderly petted the fur of the werewolf mother who had raised her for the last fifteen years. Kissing her gently on the top of the head, Gina patted her mother’s cheek one last time, then stood up.
The leaden weights clinging to my muscles disappeared. Jerking my head from Nick’s shoulder, I pushed away from him.
“Gina!” I yelled down the cliff, hoping beyond hope that my voice would carry to her. Miraculously, she turned and looked up at me. “Don’t do whatever you are about to do! Wait for me; let me help!”
Even though we were far apart, I could see her struggle with indecision for a moment. But then she squared her shoulders, looked straight at me, and shook her head. Turning for one final look at the remains of her family, she paused and then started to race up the hill toward her parents’ car.
“Well, that wasn’t very friendly-like of her, now was it?”
Nick’s voice grated on my last nerve.
“You did this!” I shouted at him. “You caused all this death and destruction!”
“Define what you mean by caused, sweet Freya.”
“I don’t care what linguistic tricks you’ll use to squirm out of the blame. You caused this, you bastard.”
“Ah, well. You’re right; let’s not quibble about semantics. It’s time for you to scoot along and try your hardest to make everyone play well together. Go along now.” He waved his hands in a shooing motion while grinning manically.
I did want to leave, to run away from this macabre scene and protect my sister from this madness, but one look at the still-motionless Alrik and David prevented me.
“Let them go,” I hissed at Nick.
“I will,” he stood up and brushed some dust off his pants, “after you go on your merry way and I’m a safe distance removed. Don’t worry; it’s not my style to pick on people who can’t fight back. That would be terribly gauche, don’t you think? On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that if I released them right now, I’d end up on the losin’ side of that particular fight. These big boys could pack a punch, couldn’t they?” He poked David with a finger. A fire burned in David’s eyes, but his arms hung useless at his side.
The indignity of that small poke was the tipping point, turning my smoldering anger to an inferno. A roar broke out of me as I rushed Nick. For the first time since I had met him, an honest flash of surprise washed across Nick’s face. Dropping my shoulder, I plowed into him, wrapping my arms around his torso. I didn’t stop, didn’t even slow down, as the two of us stumbled toward the edge of the lookout. We hit the wooden fence at the cliff’s edge and, in an eerie echo of the Eagle’s last moments, our momentum pivoted us around the top rail and flipped us over the edge of the cliff.
Nick’s eyes were wide and terror-stricken as we fell. He scrambled uselessly in the air, trying to find something to grab onto. Meanwhile, I was working as hard as I could to separate myself from his flailing limbs, but through the haze of panic, he must have realized my plan. Now he reached for me, but it was too little, too late. His fingertips brushed my shirt, but we were too distant for him to get a good hold.
Now free of him, I released my wings. My shirt was in the way, but I could wiggle my wings under and free of the constraining material. They spread out in all their splendor, instantly scooping the air and jerking me up and away from the cliff. The force generated by my sudden change in direction nearly tore my wings out of their sockets, but I ignored the pain. Pushing down hard, it took me a few strokes to stabilize and level out. The ground was much too near for my comfort; I could feel the heat radiating from the sunbaked earth, but I was safe. A meaty thump a few feet away told me that Nick didn’t have the same luck. A brief glance his way assured me that he didn’t survive the fall—the highly unnatural angle of his neck and rapidly spreading puddle of blood and brain bits were good enough proof for me. Already a crow was hopping toward his corpse. Taking a deep breath, I mentally shoved the horrific events of the l
ast minute into the mental box of “to be dealt with later,” locked it tight, and turned toward the top of the cliff.
Two faces peered down at me from the ledge. Alrik was shirtless, with his majestic wings fully extended, ready to soar down to me. The muscles of his shoulders, pecs, and beautiful six pack rippled in well-defined lines. And although it struck me as odd timing in many ways, the sight of his broad, muscular chest very nearly took my breath away. I felt a brief pang of regret that my heart and brain had chosen David. But right on the tail of that thought, relief took regret’s place. My admiration was the same as I would feel for a piece of art. And he was a piece of art, both in mind and body—just not a piece of work that called me to bind myself to it.
I looked at David and my heart dropping to my toes had nothing to do with my flight skyward. He, too, was a fine piece of art both in mind and body, and one I wanted to spend a little more time appreciating—but I needed to save that fun for later. Gina was still loose and on her way to Elin’s ranch.
Dust rose in swirls around me as I landed beside the two men. “Are you guys okay?”
“We’re fine. A couple seconds after you went off the cliff, the spell keeping us locked down fell off,” David answered.
“Probably when he experienced his fatal dose of gravity. Let’s go stop the next part of Gina’s crazy. Alrik—put your shirt on. You’re going to cause another car accident.”
Chapter 36
Now out of the twisty section of the road, Alrik pushed his car well past the speed limit. We were only minutes from the ranch, but the seconds ticked by preposterously slowly. Squirming in my seat, I checked my cell phone. Nope. Still no coverage.
“David, hypothesize about Gina’s actions.” I needed something to do right now, even if it was to speculate uselessly.
David leaned forward from the backseat and placed a hand on my shoulder. I could feel his body heat soak through my clothes and I leaned into his hand.
“She has formed a new pack. I would assume that she would perform a ceremony to cement her pack, just like we did. She could change the ceremony some, but it has to include some sort of sacrifice.”
I didn’t like the ideas that were popping up in my head around Gina’s interpretation of a sacrifice.
David seemed to sense this because he squeezed my shoulder, but then continued. “We focused on symbolic sacrifices, as all American packs have in the past. But as Gina has recently pointed out, the American werewolves have turned away from some of the old traditions of the Europeans. I can’t speak to the actual rituals used in the Old World, but I imagine they are more… animalistic. And I also suspect that they use a living sacrifice, most likely a prey sacrifice. How they, and now Gina, define prey is what concerns me. She has announced that she believes in culling the human population, so as much as I don’t want to admit it, I think she might look for a human sacrifice.”
He wasn’t sugarcoating anything, but I respected him more for it.
“Okay, worst case scenario…” that I would allow myself to think, “…we find Elin tied up to a roasting stick above a pile of wood. Gina is holding a flaming torch. What do we do?”
“You have two very strong fighters who will be right beside you,” David replied. “If Gina is even thinking of hurting your sister, she is going to be taken down using whatever force is necessary. She will have this new pack with her, but I suspect there will be motivation or coercive power to make her werewolves attack. And if there is, well, I still don’t think it will be a problem with Alrik and me. I realize that you are scared right now, but let’s look at this logically. Gina’s new pack isn’t going to act without her. And she only has a few minutes’ lead on us. She’s not going to be able to accomplish much in that time.”
His words made logical sense, but I still found myself chewing on my cuticles. I tasted my own blood. Gross, but I’d take any coping method available. Elin’s ranch house roof peeked out over the next rise.
“To the house or somewhere else?” Alrik asked.
“Elin was supposed to stay in her house. Check there first.”
As soon as my key turned the lock, I was yelling my sister’s name. Her muted reply drifted up from the basement and caused me to burst into tears of relief. We met on the stairs, me a couple of steps above her, so we were face to face. Our words and questions tumbled over each other, causing a cacophony of sound that only sisters could understand. Assured that we were both fine, we collapsed into a hug. I wiped my tears away on her shoulder and hiccupped twice.
“So Gina never came here?”
“She didn’t, but her minions did.” Elin’s voice raised an octave. “They took Albert.”
“Your art director?” I had totally forgotten him.
“Yes, they grabbed him about twenty minutes ago. They said they would kill him if they saw me follow. I didn’t know what to do. I knew you guys were coming, so I waited here. I’m a horrible person, aren’t I? But I don’t have superpowers. I couldn’t fight off six people at once.” She grabbed my shoulders and stared into my eyes. Her own eyes were wide, and fresh tears welled up. I understood her mix of guilt, anger, and frustrating helplessness when overwhelmed and subdued by people more powerful than herself. I had found myself in similar awful situations in the past.
“It’s not like the movies,” I said. “You couldn’t have fought them off or magically found the secret key to their weakness. These werewolves are big and bad and you didn’t have a chance. You did the right thing. The cavalry is here now.” I looked at Alrik and David. I knew they were big and bad as well. I hoped they were big and bad enough. “Do you know where they went?”
She shook her head.
“She will have gone to the spring were we had our own ritual. She doesn’t have enough originality to find her own spot,” David said.
“Freya, you stay here with Elin. David and I will take care of this,” Alrik said, turning to the door.
“Oh, hell no,” I said, running up the stairs. “I’m an Alpha werewolf and one of my former packmates is responsible for this nonsense. I will be there to deliver justice.” I felt the responsibility and power down to my very foundation.
Alrik looked back over his shoulder at me. Something he saw must have made him reconsider. He sighed, “Then stay well back from the action.”
He took my lack of reply as an agreement. It wasn’t.
The road to the spring was nearly blocked in places by unfamiliar cars. The number of people who had responded to Gina’s call to join her pack surprised me and made me question the wisdom of the three of us showing up without backup, but there wasn’t time to call in more people. Poor Albert needed saving now.
The backup of cars caused us to park below the ridge overlooking the spring. We couldn’t see what was happening yet, only hear the din of many people talking, but the tone was reassuring—it wasn’t an eerie silence or ritualistic chanting. I probably should have had a better plan than rushing over the hill to confront the situation head-on, but nothing came to mind. So we rushed over the hill to confront the situation head-on.
Gina stood at the head of a phalanx of people facing us. Without turning, she leisurely extended a hand at waist level and lowered it slightly. The chatter behind her decreased, then stopped in synchronicity to her motion as if she had turned a volume knob.
“Are you coming to join my new pack?” Gina called out to us, her voice sweet as syrup and dripping with compulsion. This time, the sense of compulsion rolled off me, leaving no trace.
“Stop it, Gina. It doesn’t work with me. Where’s Albert?”
She flicked her wrist and a confused, but unharmed, middle-aged man was brought forward.
“Are you okay, Albert?” I asked.
“Of course he’s fine. My god, do you think I’m a monster?”
“I think there’s a chance you may become one. You need to think hard right now about what path you go down.”
There was a threatening growl behind her and, almost as one, her n
ew pack moved closer to us. Neither David, Alrik, nor I took a step back, but I felt the threat of violence rising. I scanned over this new pack. There was the whole spectrum of ages present, which surprised me, given the youth and inexperience of their new Alpha. But as I scanned the crowd, I noticed there were quite a few people with the same desperate look which had haunted Jerry and Tasha before they had suffered their final breakdowns. Her new pack was made up of those people who were standing at the brink of destruction by their former packs and therefore had nothing to lose. And if Gina could save their lives, even at the cost of others’ lives, she would be their savior.
Gina stepped right in front of me and held out both arms in an overly dramatic, benevolent sweep.
“You don’t understand, Freya. I am on the good path. You think you know it all, but you are as blind as everyone else. My actions are going to save werewolf lives. And I’ll probably save some innocent people’s lives in the meantime since there won’t be crazy, mad werewolves running around without control. Don’t be spouting out your judgy speeches at me.”
Dropping her arms, she leaned forward and whispered into my ear, “Old Albert is here to make a point. I can hurt you if you get in my way.” She paused, then stepped back and pitched her voice loud and theatrical so everyone could hear. “But, as I’ve said before, I like you. I don’t want to hurt you. The real purpose for visiting the ranch was to collect a valuable of mine.” She pulled something out of her pocket—it was the queen chess piece she had placed in the pack’s wooden box during our own pack initiation ceremony.
“Remember,” she continued, “the queen can move anywhere she wants. She is, in fact, the most powerful piece in the whole game. So it is only fitting that me and my pack are moving out of San Luis Obispo and back to Denver. I plan on creating a new empire, not on seven hills like Rome, but better—a city on a mountain. It will be the groundwork for an eternal city for werewolves. Where we can be free to be the apex predators we are meant to be.” She leaned to the side and grabbed Albert’s arm, pushing him toward me. “Consider this a gift. Don’t stand in my way in the future.”
