by PM Drummond
“I guess it’s worth a try,” I said. “I mean, what else do I have to do right now, right?”
“Right. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” His footsteps faded as he left the cabin and ran across the gravel.
Several minutes later, I heard more footsteps, and I recognized Bader’s energy near the cabin door. I’d never realized how distinct energy patterns were or that I could differentiate them until this week. It was like voices, some were similar, but most were recognizable. The werewolves had an erratic, prickly, energy, which I knew I’d felt before. It was driving me crazy trying to figure out where I’d felt it.
Boards squeaked near the door. I had already pried up a few floorboards to expose a hole roughly two feet square.
After more squeaking and popping of wood, a beam of light swept past the hole in the floor.
“Marlee, can you see my flashlight beam?” Bader called through the crawlspace.
“Yes, I see it.”
“Tell me when it’s directly under you.”
I knelt with my back to the front door and poked my head through the hole. The beam swept slowly toward me then was directly in my eyes.
“Ah, there you are,” Bader said. “Okay, I’m going to leave the flashlight just like that. The chamber pot’s right next to it. Pull it toward you.”
“Is it breakable?”
“Yes, but it’s very thick crockery.”
“Is it empty?” Somehow hurtling an un-empty chamber pot toward myself seemed like a bad idea.
Bader laughed. “Yes. It’s empty.”
“Okay. Here goes nothing.”
I sat up a little and stuck my hands through the opening. I pictured the chamber pot in my mind, which was tricky since I’d never actually seen one in person. I sent energy out with my right hand and tracked it with my left. When the energy stream hit something, I let it flow past the object then pulled it back with my left hand. Now that the lasso was complete, I pulled the object toward me by pulling harder with my left than I was emitting with my right.
“No, stop.” Bader shouted. “That’s the flashlight. The pot’s right next to it. Closer to the door.”
I released the flashlight and managed to grab the pot and pull it under the opening. I whooped with glee and relief.
“I did it,” I shouted and pulled the large brown vessel up through the hole. It had a round wooden lid encircled by a rubber seal in the opening.
“Why do you have this thing? Don’t you have indoor plumbing?”
“Yes we do, but a few of us are plumbers. We loan them to clients when their septic systems fail.”
“Thank goodness,” I muttered.
“Okay,” Bader said, “I’ve placed a box in the same spot. Pull that over.”
I snagged the box on the first try and felt myself grinning. I pulled it through the hole. It was a relief to make my powers work for me for a change.
I tried to keep the surprise and excitement out of my voice when I told him I had the box.
After I’d used the chamber pot, I lowered it down into the floor opening. That way I wouldn’t accidentally trip over it, and if it moved, I’d know someone was trying to creep up through the hole.
The supply box contained sandwiches, a container of salad, soda, bottled water, beer, a crossword puzzle book, newspaper, and a paperback. I turned the paperback over and read the title.
“Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Very funny, Bader.”
His laughter filled the cabin, and I jumped.
“Geez, I didn’t hear you come in. Good thing I’d already used that chamber pot.”
“My people can be very stealthy when we want to be,” he said. “Do you need anything else?”
“No. I’m fine. You’ve sent more than enough. Thanks for thinking to throw in the crosswords and stuff.”
“You’re welcome. I don’t do well in confined spaces, and I’d want something to do.”
I sat on the table and unwrapped a sandwich. “Is that another side effect of your condition?”
“It’s a trait of what I am, yes.” His voice held a tinge of anger.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean any offense,” I said.
“It’s okay. It’s just odd for an outsider to know.”
I bit into the sandwich and thought of his reaction as I chewed.
“You’re not bothered by being . . . you know . . .” I couldn’t figure how to phrase it without offending him again.
“I’m proud of being a lycanthrope.”
“You are?” I winced at the surprise in my voice, but to my relief, Bader chuckled.
“Yes, I am. Why shouldn’t I be? I’m better than a commoner. I’m faster, stronger, hear better, see better, have a far superior sense of smell. Why wouldn’t I be proud of that?”
“I don’t know.” I ate more of the sandwich and drank some water. “So you have no regrets? You never wish you were normal?”
“Common,” he said. “We went over that, remember?”
“Yeah.”
“The only thing I regret is the inability to have children.”
“Oh. You can’t?”
“It’s not likely. Very rare, in fact. I was born a lycanthrope, but I am one of only three naturals that I know of. Gestation rarely occurs for our kind.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
He grunted.
“Will you feel secure if I leave?” he asked.
“Yes, I’ll be fine. Please make sure the others don’t try to come in, though. I don’t want to accidentally hurt anyone.”
He was silent for a moment, and I could feel his hesitation and worry by the prickly spike in his energy.
“What is it?” I said.
“Marlee, please don’t be frightened, but it’s full moon tonight.”
Full moon. Werewolves. Great. Just great.
“Oh,” my voice squeaked. “So that’s not a myth huh?”
“Not really. We don’t have to turn, but it’s very uncomfortable if we don’t. I was going to stay in human form if you released yourself, but if you aren’t . . .”
“Oh, that’s okay,” I said. “I’ve already been enough trouble. Go ahead and . . . you know. Will the others stay away from here?”
“I’ll try to keep the younger males away, but a female in season is a female in season, lycanthrope or not. I’ll be outside, but I’ll be in form. Keep the barricade tight.”
“Oh, don’t worry.”
The screen door slapped back and forth a few times.
“I’ll protect you the best I can,” Bader said. “Rune will be here in a few hours. None of my people will challenge him.”
His voice deepened and took on a gravely edge as he moved to the door.
“I really must go. You will be safe.”
His footsteps retreated quickly from the cabin.
I climbed off the table and placed the box of supplies on the floor. After some wrestling and maneuvering, I turned the table over and positioned it over the hole in the floor to block the opening. I sat on the table between the upturned legs and pulled the crossword puzzle book out of the box.
Halfway through my second word search, the energy outside built to an un-ignorable level. I closed the puzzle book and clutched it to my chest.
A howl split the night air. A chorus of answering yips and howls followed. Goose bumps tightened the skin on my arms.
The next few hours crawled by with me sitting in terror in the enclosure. Several times wolves came into the cabin and threw themselves at the makeshift walls or dug at the wooden floor, trying to gain entrance. The walls that I’d cursed earlier, I thanked God for now. About three hours in, one brave wolf tried to break in through the crawl space. Its raw energy sizzled against my legs and butt. The chamber pot scraped the ground as it was pushed aside and strong scratches resonated on the wood beneath me. I screamed as energy shot from me down through the floor. Howls of pain and scrabbling movement shot up through the floorboards and faded as they moved through the entrance and out of the cr
awl space. A scorched hair smell wafted through the wood planking a few seconds later.
They left me alone after that for about an hour, then all hell broke loose. I sat trying to concentrate on a crossword puzzle that only had two lines filled in after a half hour of working on it. The hair on my arms rustled, then stood painfully on end. Raw energy surrounded the cabin and closed in on stealthy feet. Garbled thought and snippets of words bombarded me—intruder, kill, female, mate. Waves of emotion rolled in—anger, curiosity, lust.
I sat up, and the enclosure creaked as it tightened. Floorboards creaked as otherwise silent paws crept forward. Movement stopped and silence stretched out for a dozen heartbeats, then, on some silent signal, they charged, hurtling their bodies against my enclosure. Scrabbling claws scratched their way up the stacked tables, trying to find an opening.
Werewolf energy stung against my skin as my body absorbed it. I fought to contain my spiking power, fearing if I let it go, it would flatten the walls—my only protection.
A wolf bounded in and growled. I recognized its energy as Bader’s. Other wolves answered his growl, and a snarling, snapping fight ensued, and spilled outside under the trees.
“Stop it, stop it, stop it,” I screamed. I stood but held fast to one of the table legs for support so my shaking legs wouldn’t dump me back to the ground. My heart hurtled itself against my breastbone with each beat.
One of the tables fell away on the outside of the enclosure. I was clamping down too tightly on my power—effectively dissolving the energy-glue that kept the makeshift walls together. I let up on my power. It instantly tried to jump free and out of control. I reined it back.
Another table fell.
I leaned on a table leg and reached out with both arms ready to unleash my power if they breached the enclosure. My chest jerked up and down with staccato breaths.
Blood roared in my ears, blood and something else, another roar in the distance but getting louder—the unmistakable growl of Harleys drawing near.
CHAPTER NINE
THE ROAD BACK
The motorcycles skidded to a stop in front of the cabin. I closed my eyes and reached out past the buzzing energy all around my enclosure to where I thought the bikes might be. I didn’t feel any life static.
Rune.
Out in the compound, the wolf fight continued. Heavy, booted footsteps thudded in the doorway. Waves of thrumming rolled through the air. Each wave built until it vibrated my chest. The scrabbling at the enclosure stopped. Growls and barking turned to snarls and whines and retreated to the back of the enclosure.
“Friends.” Rune’s voice was low and powerful. “I do not wish to cause you discomfort. Please leave and let me remove the woman safely.”
The thrumming stopped. Tension and anger permeated the air, but the wolves didn’t move. Rune’s footsteps echoed a loud measured cadence to the corner near the door.
“I thank you for keeping my woman safe,” Rune continued, “and for leaving me so I may help her from her confinement. We have helped one another many times in the past, and I am indebted to you and generations of your clan, whom I have known.”
The snarls outside in the compound rose to a fevered pitch. It sounded like a dozen wolves, but I was only picking up on two energy sources. Suddenly, one of the wolves screamed in pain and was quiet.
Inside the cabin, the tension continued from the wolves—a low rumbling of growls. The wolves advanced and the growls grew stronger.
Another pair of heavy, booted footsteps entered the cabin and joined Rune. No energy signal was attached to the new person.
The wolves neared the center of the cabin next to my enclosure. A steady pressure built from Rune and his companion, and I recognized the added thrum as the same one I’d felt at Rune’s place. It belonged to Griss.
As the wolves inched forward, the pressure from the two vampires built. I jumped as my ponytail lifted and the hair on my arms stood on end.
A limping step thumped up the steps into the cabin. The vampire thrumming stopped.
“Enough!” Bader’s voice boomed. “Stand down.” His voice was gravely and his words slurred. His energy felt part wolf and part human, or as close to human as Bader was earlier when I talked to him. His energy was tinged with the dark red of pain.
The wolves retreated a few feet but continued to growl.
“I said enough!” Bader said. “I am clan leader when the elders are away. You will do as I say or face the pack elders.”
Bader limped over to Rune and Griss and spoke to the wolves again. “Leave now. If I say it again, it’s a death sentence to whoever hears it.”
The wolves bounded from the cabin, some still growling.
“Marlena,” Rune’s voice felt like velvet on my ears. “Fotia, are you all right?”
It took a few tries to speak past my tightened throat.
“Yes,” I said at last, “I’m okay.”
Tears of relief sprang to my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Someone shook the tables and benches that made up my shelter.
“Can you release the bond you have on this furniture?” Rune said.
“I’ve tried,” I said. “It hasn’t worked.”
“Try again,” he said.
“Okay, but you have to leave the cabin. I don’t want to hurt anyone else.”
“If it will help you, we will leave.”
Two sets of booted footsteps started toward the door. A softer barefoot footstep started toward the door, then faltered. Someone caught Bader before he could hit the ground. My stomach turned and my energy spiked.
“Marlena,” Rune said, “he is well. Calm yourself.”
“I’m trying,” I said. “Is Bader really okay?”
Bader chuckled and drew a breath of pain. “Just a few battle wounds, Marlee. Nothing that hasn’t happened before. Maintaining rank in the pack is one of the down sides of being with fur.”
I tried to rein in my stress and worry. It was like trying to catch lightning.
“All right, Marlena,” Bader said from several feet away from the cabin. “We’re behind the truck. What’s say you take that thing down?”
I turned the table over. I ducked underneath it and resumed the crouched, arms-out stance I’d taken earlier. A bloom of energy built in my chest. I pushed it down my arms to my hands, but this time, it refused to even leave my body. At least last time it had let me send out the energy before it pulled the walls back in.
I pounded my fists on the wooden floor. “Damn, damn, damn.” I lifted my head and it thumped on the table.
“Ow! What the heck is the use of having this thing, if it won’t do what I tell it to?” I crawled from under the table, rubbing my head and looked down into the dark hole in the floor. My skin crawled and my throat constricted again. Flashes of Aunt Tibby’s house raced through my brain.
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t crawl into that hole.
I stood and slapped the dirt from my jeans.
“I can’t do it,” I shouted. “My energy is just too out of control.”
Rune’s smooth, calm voice sounded by the enclosure, and I jumped. “Would it help if you took the medication I sent with you?”
“No,” I said. “It quit working.”
“Both of them?”
“Yep.”
“Would it help if I came in with you?”
The idea of Rune in the small enclosure with me sent both fear and excitement through me.
“I . . .” I scrubbed at my face and ran my hands through my hair. “I . . . Oh, what the heck, it’s worth a try. How are you going to get in here?”
“Bader said there is a hole in the floor.”
The thought of Rune’s gorgeous body under the cabin with my used chamber pot turned my stomach. Two steps took me to the wall near Rune. I put my hand on the wooden wall and tried to feel him. Part of me needed to touch him. Part of me feared being in the same cabin with him.
“No,” I said. “I change my mind. I don’t think—”
“Think what, fotia?” Rune said.
I spun around and found him inches from me.
“How’d you do—”
He put his finger on my lips and smiled. “It is not important.”
Our gazes locked and I didn’t care if he mesmerized me. I was just glad he was there. The enclosure seemed at once too small and too large. To my amazement, all my fear and worry melted into need—the need to be held, the need to be reassured, the need to touch him. I leaned into him. His hand moved from my lips to cradle the back of my head. An arc of energy jumped between our mouths as they met.
My body stiffened, and my energy level spiked as the butterflies in my stomach fought for freedom. As the kiss deepened, a whimper escaped me, and I relaxed into him. Energy flowed from me into his mouth. My hands encircled him and slid up the tight wall of muscle that was his back. His cool body evoked heat from mine where we touched. I pressed into him, and he moaned and deepened the kiss until he leaned over me holding me with one hand behind my head and one at the small of my back.
I felt light. The energy that had clogged my chest, head, and arms all day evaporated. Rune stopped drawing energy from me, but the kiss continued for several more heartbeats. He broke the kiss and his lips traveled across my cheek then down my neck, dancing lightly against my throat. Then he pulled away and shook his head. His eyes glowed with my energy.
“No, not here.” He pulled me upright, stroked my hair, and smiled. “I lose myself so easily in you, foteinos fotia.”
I closed my eyes and relaxed into the feel of his hand on my hair.
“What is that? Foteinos fotia?” I said. I finally had to ask. I loved the way it sounded, but I had been afraid it meant something like “one who can’t control herself.”
A deep chuckle rumbled in his chest.
“It means luminous fire in a language older than your history.”
I sighed and tucked my head under his chin. “Luminous fire?”
He turned his face so his cheek rested on the top of my head.
“It is how I see you. To vampire eyes, you are a bright and luminous beauty. Your life energy shines beyond all other humans. It is what Samuel saw in the classroom.”
