by Taft, Nicole
“Wolf, stop.”
He didn’t listen.
“Wolf, stop!”
He looked up at me and growled, a low menacing one this time, and his eyes had changed. They were red again. The red of blood and melted rubies. He bared his teeth.
Panic swept over me. This wasn’t love. It wasn’t even animal lust. This was rape.
I struck out at him, but he caught my hands and pinned them above my head. He used his other hand to hold my hips to the floor while he drove into me. I twisted and screamed, straining against him. He brought his head down and sank his fangs into my shoulder. I screamed again, tears building in my eyes. My shoulder grew wet with blood. I’d made the mistake of convincing myself that I could handle him like any other wolf, like he could be studied and understood. This was not a wolf from my world. They were wrong, sick, ruled by the moon. He was keeping me here until he was done, biting me like a lion biting a lioness. I did not matter.
I squirmed, shouting and trying to kick at him. He growled again at my shoulder. I managed to work one hand free and punched him in the ear. He let go of my shoulder and snarled in my face, but I swung my elbow around and struck him right above the eye. He yelped and recoiled backward, giving me enough time to scramble out from beneath him. I kicked him in the shoulder as I went. I managed to crawl around a stack of hay bales, wishing that I had a knife or at least my bear mace.
Wolf rocked back and forth, a hand to his face. He whined as blood trickled down his cheek. I’d opened a spot over his eye. Then he groaned and took his hand away, staring at the red liquid as if trying to remember why it was there. He licked his lips, which were still wet with my blood. His eyes went wide and he looked frantically around the barn.
“Caroline? Caroline!”
“I’m here,” I said quietly. I peered at him over the hay, too drained to move again.
“Oh,” he choked out. “Are you all right? How badly did I hurt you?” He reached out to me, but I recoiled behind the hay.
Pure anguish shone on his face. “I am sorry. I am so, so sorry.”
I wanted to comfort him, to tell him that it would be okay, but I would just be lying again. None of this was okay. I was still naked; going out to him might have the opposite effect. I didn’t know how to approach him without setting him off again.
He let his hand drop and then howled piteously. I wanted to say something, but my mind felt like it was drowning and I hurt and my shoulder bled down my arm. I watched him spring to his feet and sprint from the barn, headed for the woods.
I sat on the floor of the barn for a long time. The sun was setting, sending burning orange rays through the barn windows. I wanted to be angry, but I wasn’t. I thought maybe I should cry, but I didn’t. I didn’t have the energy to do either of those things. I was too tired and numb. I didn’t blame Wolf, not entirely anyway. Mostly I blamed my own arrogance. My own overconfidence in thinking I could handle his wolf side when clearly wolves were not the same here. After all, he’d warned me.
Finally I got to my feet, found my clothes. I did a slapdash dressing of my bite wound, covering it with the remaining gauze and a few squares of duct tape. As an afterthought, I fished the pouch of money from Wolf’s jacket. Then I started back down to the village, formulating answers for the undoubtedly pissed off questions Alex would ask me.
“Geez Care, what the hell took so long?”
“He didn’t know anything,” I said, ignoring Alex’s disapproving stare.
“It took that long to find out he didn’t know anything?”
“He wasn’t in his right mind, okay?” I snapped. “He’ll be better tomorrow when the full moon is gone.”
Alex didn’t say anything. For a while all we did was stare down the alleyway, trying to figure out what to do next. Wolf’s snarling face and crimson eyes kept jumping into my head. I kept pushing the image away. I hoped he would be better tomorrow. I hoped we could find him or that he would come back. I closed my eyes. Wolf was beyond me now. I had to try and help Marianne. We had to get in there somehow. We had to break whatever magic spell was around this place and rescue her.
“Bluebells…”
Alex looked at me. “What?”
“Bluebells. Marianne. For some reason I always think of bluebells when she’s around.”
“So?”
“So does Wolf. She said it was because she was born in a fairy ring. I think it means something.”
“Aw, look, Care…”
“We need to find a library or somewhere that has books. We need information about magic spells or magic flowers.”
“Care—”
I whirled on Alex. “Look. We know nothing about this place. Nothing. We’re wandering around stupid and almost getting eaten by giants and things, and now we find ourselves faced with magic, and we can’t fight magic without at least knowing about magic. We. Need. Information.”
I stomped off. Alex followed.
After asking a few people, we were directed to a large building that looked like it had stood there forever. The Book Depository, where they kept all the old books from the town. Apparently throwing away books was a no-no, so all unwanted titles ended up there until they fell apart. Inside, the place was like a library in overdrive with no librarians to tackle the mess. Books lined the shelves, sat in stacks upon stacks, many thick with dust and yellowed with age. If there were tables or furniture in the rooms, they’d long since been covered with books.
An old man appeared from around a stack of coffee table-sized books. “Can I help you?” He tottered over to us in a brown overcoat. His white hair fluffed around his head like it had a mind of its own. “I’m the Archives Master. I haven’t seen you two in here before.”
“We’re…visiting,” I said. “We’re looking for some information. Magic, to be precise. Primarily protective magic, maybe some summoning and, ah, banishment.” It felt incredibly weird to be asking these sorts of things. I half expected the Archives Master to look at us funny and ask us to leave.
“Indeed, indeed,” he said, touching a finger to his chin. “There’s plenty of that in here, though I daresay you’ll have to look for it.”
I glanced around at the stacks and towering shelves and tried not to get too dejected.
“Are they in any order?” I asked him.
“Some. I try, but after a while there are just too many so I set them wherever I can.”
“Great,” Alex muttered behind me.
I thanked him and made for a shelf.
“Caroline, how long is this going to take?”
I pulled out a book entitled Magical Herbs, Portents, and Sigils. “As long as it has to.”
We spent the rest of the day poring over dozens of books, making notes on the scratchy paper the Archive Master gave us with old fountain pens. My fingers were black with ink, the liquid seeping into the cracks under and around my fingernails. Every now and then, one of us would check the building to make sure it was still there. The sun was gone and the moon was out, full and white like a pure silver coin in the sky. So far, nothing had changed.
I worried about Wolf. But every time his face popped into my head, I forced it away and thought of Marianne instead. I had to forget Wolf. I had to focus on Marianne.
I’d made notes on everything from summoning powers to protective charms we might be able to get here in the village. Nothing talked about smoke demons or satanic werewolves though. A town like this probably wouldn’t carry any serious books about dark magic. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the residents had never even seen a book on dark magic. At least I assumed it was dark magic. It sure as hell didn’t look friendly.
“What have you got so far?” Alex said, sounding tired.
I sat back and looked over my notes. “I think we can use bluebells to summon that thing since they typically grow in fairy rings and both of those are related to Marianne. Snowdrops are good for protection, but they only bloom in winter so I doubt we’ll find any now. Horseshoes protect against evi
l spells, especially after being worn by a horse in its seventh year, chalcedony helps banish illusions…” I scanned my writings, “and I’ve got a whole list of other flowers and plants and things here that we can use to try and kill it without getting killed ourselves. How about you?”
“About the same. A lot of little things that might add up. Found a lot of interesting potions that might do the trick, but we haven’t exactly got a whole month to make them, and I don’t know what half this crap is.”
“Well, let’s compare our lists and then go see if we can find some of this stuff before all the shops here close.”
We found a flower shop and a small store that sold knickknacks and other oddities, and bought bluebells, roses, morning glories still on long vines, pansies, chalcedony, boji stones, an old horseshoe, dried angelica root, fangs of a snake I’d never heard of, a vial of juniper and clove oil, and salt. We bought two small pouches, one for each of us, and divided up most of the objects into them. I didn’t know what the different sizes the squares of silver money meant, so I lied to the merchants and told them I was from a neighboring kingdom. Thankfully it worked, and they counted out the money themselves. I hoped they weren’t screwing us over.
“I feel like it’s the 1600s and we’re about to go witch hunting,” Alex muttered.
As we left the knickknack store, a long howl rose into the night. Please Wolf, don’t be getting into trouble.
“Now what do we do?” Alex asked.
We stopped outside the alley where the small house sat with Marianne tucked away inside. I wanted to go in and rescue her, but if there was one thing I’d learned since being here, it was that when I did things without knowing what I was doing, I got myself into trouble. I didn’t want to drag Alex into any stupid decisions either. We needed Wolf. Except I didn’t know how long it would be until he was lucid again. Or where he was for that matter.
“Three against one is better odds than two against one, right?” I said. “Wolf knows more about what’s going on than either of us. This thing is still resting. It’s weird, but I can feel it. We’ll keep an eye on this place tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll check on Wolf again, and if he’s,” I almost said not there, but corrected myself in time, “still not well enough, we’re just going to have to do this on our own because I don’t think we can afford to wait anymore. We’ll sleep in shifts in case it wakes up during the night.”
I prayed that once the full moon was gone, Wolf would be back to himself. He’d even said that something was wrong this time. Something had poisoned the moon, and in turn, poisoned him. Part of me desperately wanted to look for him, but another part of me was afraid of what might happen if I actually found him.
Chapter 13
Alex and I slept in four hour shifts, and soon the sun rose again to yet another glorious day. I awoke with a loud yawn, vaguely wondering if the Kingdom of Red ever had any bad weather and hoping that now that I’d thought of it, we wouldn’t suddenly receive a healthy portion of mean rain clouds. After stuffing a handful of jerky in my mouth for breakfast and eating my last candy bar, I patted Alex on the shoulder and headed to the abandoned barn again. I stopped off at the village well to fill one of my water bottles on the way. If Wolf wasn’t here, then I didn’t know where to look. He could be anywhere in the woods, and we couldn’t wait much longer before acting.
As I ran, a shrill scream echoed across the valley. I froze and spun around. It went on for a little longer before more people joined in the shouting and yelling. My heart thumped in my chest as a single word floated through the air over and over again.
“Wolf!”
I sprinted for the barn and slid to a halt when I reached the doors. A deep shudder ran through me when I saw the handles. A red liquid gleamed on them in the early morning sun. I used one finger to gently pull one of the doors open.
A pair of bloody hands appeared in front of me.
I screamed, but in the next moment realized the hands belonged to Wolf.
“I’m sorry,” he said, staring at the ground, his face full of anxiety. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I smelled you at the door…”
“Oh my God.” I stared at his hands. “Wolf—are you hurt?”
He was fully clothed, and not only were his hands covered in blood, but drops of it spattered his shirt as well. I’d asked the question, but I already knew what the answer was. I just didn’t want to believe what it could really mean.
“No.”
“Wolf,” I spoke slowly, “what did you do?”
He turned and shuffled back to the center of the barn. I followed, making sure to shut the barn doors behind me. Wolf plopped down on the hay strewn floor.
“I don’t know,” he said, his voice strained. “I can’t quite remember. It was a long night.” He shuddered. “It’s all rather muddled in my head…”
I knelt down in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder. His entire body was shaking. I tried to look him in the face.
“Wolf, you have to remember. What did you do?”
He squeezed his eyes shut for several long moments before opening them again. I was glad to see at least they were a safe hazel color.
“I think…I think I ate something.”
Well obviously, I thought. But I wanted to know what he’d eaten. I prayed to God it was just sheep or chickens. I thought about telling him about the uproar in the town over a wolf attack, but he wasn’t in any condition to receive that sort of news. The last thing I needed was for him to panic.
“All right, well, we need to clean you up.”
I took out the water bottle I’d filled and poured it over his hands, rubbing them with one of mine to wash off the blood. It trickled onto the floor and mixed with the golden strands of hay. If he’d eaten something, I was surprised that he didn’t have any blood around his mouth.
This is so messed up, a small part of my brain muttered.
“Caroline,” Wolf said quietly, peering into my face, “why are you here? After what I did…”
“We found Marianne,” I said louder than I’d intended, as though I hadn’t heard him. I just didn’t want to think about it. “We need your help to get her out. We’re going to try summoning the thing with bluebells, and then defeat it once it reveals itself.”
I finished getting the blood off his hands. I gazed at his shirt and wondered about the best way to get the blood out of the fabric. We couldn’t go into the town like this, not with everyone screaming about wolves.
He took hold of one of my hands. I stopped what I was doing and stared back. He had misery written all over his face, mixed with a self-loathing I’d never seen in him before. My brash wolf, who had faced giants and a necrotic forest and slave traders, had become nothing more than a desperate man trying to get his bearings. He wanted to say he was sorry, but knew that the words alone weren’t enough. I leaned forward to put my forehead against his.
Suddenly his head snapped up, his eyes wide.
“Someone’s coming.”
The door burst open and dozens of angry villagers armed with pitchforks and other pointed objects streamed in. Wolf and I jumped to our feet, both of us too frightened and uncertain to know what to do. The mob swarmed around us, men pushing me away and grabbing Wolf by his arms. Shouts of, “Wolf! Get the wolf!” filled the room. Wolf struggled and shouted, trying to break free. Someone cuffed him across the face.
“No,” I yelled. “Leave him alone! What are you doing?”
I tried to jump forward, but one of the men caught me and held me back.
“He’s a wolf. Show it!”
“Do you know him, miss?” the man holding me asked.
He’d spoke loud enough for Wolf to hear, and even in his panic, he gazed and me and shook his head fiercely.
“I…” Then it dawned on me. “No. I don’t. I saw him come in here. I thought maybe he was hurt, so I came to help him.”
“Leading young women astray to eat them!” a farmer yelled, grabbing Wolf’s face with one hand.
“No!” Wolf barked.
Two men closest to him pulled off Wolf’s belt. Another behind him yanked down the hem of Wolf’s pants, freeing his tail.
A roar of triumph and anger went up from the men.
“Burn him! Burn the wolf! He’s killed our sheep and our cows! Put him out of his misery!”
At the mention of the cows, Wolf’s eyes went wide.
“No! No, I didn’t! It’s a lie!”
They half dragged, half carried him from the barn as he howled away. The man finally let me go, and I stared after them, racking my brain for an idea.
“Say miss, where are you from anyway?”
I didn’t answer. Instead I sprinted back to the village, outstripping the mob and almost crashing to the ground when my feet hit the worn smooth cobblestones. I found Alex sitting against a wall, toying with the crossbow the witch had given him. The building Marianne was in was still asleep, almost like it was waiting for something.
“Caroline, what is it?” Alex asked as I came to a stop near him.
For a moment I couldn’t speak, only able to suck in deep breaths of air after my hard run.
“Wolf,” I finally managed. “They took him. A bunch of farmers. Some of their livestock was killed last night. They think he did it. They’re going to burn him.”
Alex sprang to his feet. “Well, did he do it? He is a wolf, right?”
“Half wolf. And what the hell does it matter? They’re going to burn him alive.”
“Jesus.” Alex ran a hand over his forehead.
“They said sheep and cows were killed, but that doesn’t make sense. Even if Wolf was responsible, he wouldn’t have killed that many. I know they’re different around here, but I still don’t think they kill just for the sake of killing. It’s all food. I just don’t believe it. We’ve got to get him out of there. We can’t let them do this.”
“Okay. Uh.” Alex ran a hand through his hair. “Okay. I’ll go to the fields and see if I can find tracks or anything else.” He paused. “Wait, what about this thing?”
We stared at the building for a few moments. A few streets away, the roar of the crowd grew louder. I closed my eyes and delved into the strange magic sensation the place gave off.
