The Mountain's Shadow

by Cecilia Dominic

  “I wanted to, but I couldn’t find the words, and I didn’t want to compromise my perceived objectivity.”

  I stepped between them. “Guys, can we save this discussion for the morning? Lonna is out there.”

  “Do you have something of hers I can mark the scent from?”

  “Her pajamas are by the door.”

  “Fine. If you two will, ah, excuse me.”

  “Transformation is very private,” I explained to Iain as I led him down the hallway.

  “I see.” His facial expression told me he wondered if I was going to drag him into my web of insanity. This would be the ultimate test for him: would he believe, or would he try to have us all committed or arrested for an elaborate hoax?

  A noise between a bark and a yip alerted us that Gabriel had changed and was ready to go. A large brown wolf, his tongue lolling to one side, sat by the door. I held my breath and looked at Iain.

  “That. Is. Amazing,” he whispered, the hint of a smile on his patrician lips.

  I could finally exhale. “Yeah, it is.”

  We opened the door, and wolf-Gabriel dashed down the stairs and made a beeline for the barbecue pit. We had to run to keep up with him, the flashlight beams bouncing ahead of us. He took a cursory sniff at the bone Lonna had dropped earlier and, with a glance over his shoulder to make sure we followed, trotted toward the woods. We had to go single file as he wandered back and forth, finally coming out on the other side near Chenal Parkway, a busy thoroughfare that ran from the retail area near I-430 to the new neighborhoods off Highway 10. My heart clenched—had she been hit? But no large lump lay moribund in the road or median. Instead, Gabriel took us along the side of the road, and back into another wooded area. He stopped, and Iain opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, we heard a low growl.

  Wolf-Gabriel gave a whine and tucked his tail as he approached wolf-Lonna, whose snout was bloodied by the rabbit she’d killed and had just disemboweled.

  “Oh God,” Iain muttered and fainted in a heap behind me. I knelt beside him and gently nudged him.

  “C’mon, Iain, this is no time for you to be passing out.” I shook a little harder and looked at wolf-Gabriel. If a lycanthropic face could register amusement, I swear he had a grin, and his eyes danced with laughter. Wolf-Lonna nudged him with her cold nose, and he joined her in polishing off the rabbit.

  “Would the two of you mind burying that when you’re done?” I asked. “I don’t think Iain could take waking up to the mess you’ve made.”

  Iain’s breathing came regularly, and his heart rate was strong so I knew he would wake soon. That was the good thing about theoretical and literature-based research—not much in the way of blood and guts. I wasn’t really that squeamish, not since Andrew had died and my father had explained everything in cold, clinical terms that put it safely in the realm of science, but I’ll admit the sight did disturb me.

  Dawn streaked the sky with fingers of red on the horizon, and Gabriel and Lonna raised their heads as though something had called to them. He touched her nose and started the transformation process. I turned away to give them privacy, and when I looked back, they both sat there, naked, with blood on their faces.

  “What?” Lonna asked just before her eyes rolled back. She would have hit her head on a rock had Gabriel not caught her and helped her to the ground.

  “Common reaction to the first transformation as the human brain, the cortex, reasserts itself over the animal brain,” he told me. “It’s kind of like a teen learning to drive a standard transmission for the first time. It takes practice to find the clutch and not stall.” He smirked at the reclining Iain. “So much for the brave Doctor McPherson.”

  He stood and stretched, and I couldn’t help but notice his erection. I glanced away and blushed.

  He looked down and tried to cover himself with his hands. “It’s not uncommon upon transformation back to being human. And there is a naked woman right here. And part of the animal brain is still very active.” He scratched the back of his head.

  “I see.” Sexual tension crackled between us.

  Iain stirred and rolled up on one elbow, the heel of his hand to his temple. He looked at me, at Gabriel, and at Lonna, who also stirred.

  “I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?”

  “Nope.” I tried to sound cheerful. “Nothing at all.” But my body thrummed with the energy of the dawn and the desire to run my fingers down Gabriel’s soft chest hair, to feel the hard muscle underneath, and to show him exactly what I wanted him to do with his impressive equipment below.

  Iain, ever the practical one, observed, “There seems to be a shortage of clothing here.”

  “No shit.” I hoped he didn’t see me sneak glances over at Gabriel, who stood there as though greeting the dawn naked was the most natural thing for him. I guess, in a sense, it was.

  “Perhaps we should fetch their clothes from the apartment so they can dress? I doubt it would go over well with motorists for them to stroll along the side of the road in their birthday suits.”

  “You have a good point,” I said and stood up. “Why don’t you go, and I’ll stay here to make sure Lonna is okay?”

  “I would prefer not to go alone, particularly after yesterday. If something untoward happens to me, I want a witness.”

  A pang of guilt stung me, and I didn’t blame him for being uneasy. After all, if I’d been almost blown up, I’d not want to go walking around alone, either. Actually, I had almost been blown up, and I could definitely see where he was coming from.

  “We’ll be back in a few minutes,” I said.

  Gabriel’s smile was wry and regretful, but he sat down to wait.

  “Is there something going on between the two of you?” asked Iain as we made our way back along the road.

  “Nope, just a lot of gloriously unrequited sexual tension.”

  “Really? I would never have guessed.”

  “Ha ha.”

  “This is incredible, really. I don’t think I believed you until I witnessed what I just did.”

  “How much did you see? The transformation is their most vulnerable time, so they may not be happy that you watched.”

  “I saw enough.” He arched an eyebrow at me. “And that is all I’m saying. I’m still processing this.”

  “I know it’s a lot.” Something nagged at the back of my brain, but I ignored it, the desire for denial stronger than the idea’s will to push through. My left wrist throbbed—I hadn’t put on the brace before coming out—and it appeared to be slightly more swollen than my right one. I’d have to put ice on it before driving home.

  The idea came through. Leo, just post-transformation, the look on his face as his territorial feelings about Wolfsbane Manor and its grounds overcame his better judgment as a doctor and caused him to hurt me in a manner that would not heal quickly. Ron’s story about the professor’s daughter and how it had cost him his fellowship popped into my head right behind it. My interlude with Gabriel the morning after Louise died and how we had almost made love right there on the island, the desire so thick I could taste it. Passion, lust and greed: the animal part of the brain on overdrive. And I had just left Gabriel alone and naked in a clearing with my best friend, whose state of mind was as yet unknown, but who had been known to dally with the occasional unsuitable male, even to hunt him.

  “Oh God.”

  “What?”

  “We need to go back.” I turned around and was surprised to feel Iain’s iron grip on my right wrist.

  “It’s probably already too late.”

  I shook my head, tears stinging my eyes. “But it would ruin everything.” The image of the wolf from Cabal’s letterhead came back to me— “Unfair, unfair,” indeed. I knew it would sound silly to him, how she’d always been taller, prettier and more confident than me, but we were still best friends in spite of it. She’d had her pick of boys in college, and I would never date them after her because if I did, I’d wonder if I fell short—literall
y and figuratively. That I’d kissed Gabriel first wouldn’t matter. I couldn’t compete with the passion of the perfect woman or the new werewolf.

  “If you’re going to live with them, you need to be able to accept the limitations of the disorder. You need to realize that they can’t be held completely accountable for their actions.”

  I knew he was right, but I didn’t have to like it.

  “It’s already too late,” he said again and gently tugged me after him up the hill, past the barbecue pit, and around the lake. We gathered their clothing and trudged back, only to find the clearing empty, the only sign of what had happened a flattened area in the pine straw on the ground and traces of the dead rabbit.

  “Where are they?” I asked. Then I saw it. The black wolf. It snarled, and Iain and I took the hint and ran the other way. We made it to the road just as the clearing exploded and knocked us to the ground as the earth rocked and black smoke poured over us.

  “Are you okay?”

  I opened my eyes and found Leo’s dark brown ones looking into them with concern. “You were out for about five minutes.”

  “Iain?”

  “I’m all right.” His voice sounded shaky, but at least he was alive.

  “Can you move everything?” Leo asked.

  I tested my fingers and toes. Everything worked fine. “Can I sit up?”

  “We need to wait for the paramedics. I saw the whole thing. You got thrown back a few feet. I don’t know if there’s any spinal damage.”

  “You’re the orthopedic doctor.”

  “It’s hard to tell by just touching sometimes.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I was still in wolf form. If I’d transformed…” He gestured to himself. He was naked and vulnerable. His wolf-hide had probably saved him.

  “The black wolf. I saw it.”

  “It warned you. I would have, but it dashed out there first and snarled at you. I couldn’t follow—I had to make sure you were okay.”

  “Thank you.”

  He raised his head as the sound of sirens floated through the broken trees. “I’ll be close by, but I don’t want to be seen here.”

  “I don’t blame you. Go find some clothes.” I gestured to the ones we’d brought, which wouldn’t have fit him even if they had been wearable.

  He melted into the shadows.

  The paramedics arrived with the police, checked us out, and declared us to be generally unharmed, just shaken and bruised. We declined to go to the hospital for X-rays and other diagnostic tests. Then we had to deal with the police again.

  “I don’t know what you’ve done, but someone wants you to stop doing it. Badly,” the detective said to us as we sat in his office. Again, we were bruised and dirty, and I still clutched the tattered remains of the clothing.

  It was a rehash of the day before, this time sleep deprived, exhausted, and with something to hide. This time I couldn’t deny that the black wolf had warned us, and my head spun as the implications sunk in. It had warned me the day before, although I hadn’t realized it, but enough of the warning had sunk in to make me pull Iain back in the nick of time. Then there was the night Louise had died. Had it brought her to Wolfsbane Manor to give me the message, “The black wolf knows”? And had it been what had set my car alarm off and broken my focus so that I could escape that night from the fire in the lab? What if the black wolf wasn’t my enemy, but rather some sort of twisted guardian angel?

  What if the black wolf wasn’t a wolf, as I suspected? Leo and Ron said they’d tracked a strange werewolf back to the Manor. Leo hadn’t said anything that morning, but it’s not like we’d had a lot of time to chat.

  “We have to go,” I said and stood. “You can contact me at Wolfsbane Manor in Crystal Pines if you have any more questions.”

  “Now, Doctor Fisher, we haven’t finished talking yet.” The detective motioned for me to sit down. His drawl as well as his condescending tone reminded me of Bud Knowles, and something inside me snapped.

  “Are we under arrest, Detective?”

  “No, but—”

  “But it’s ten o’clock, and I’ve been up since three without any coffee or breakfast, and don’t you even try to tell me that the swill and donuts you have in the break room will do. My blood sugar is dropping, and unless you’d like to give me an escort to UAMS when I crash out, I suggest you let me leave, get something to eat, and then get back to my estate. My solicitor, Mr. Galbraith, will know how to get in touch with me. Frankly, I’m tired, injured and ready to go home.”

  The detective’s mouth worked, and he struggled to say something. I ignored him, and with a sharp incline of my head, told Iain it was time to go. Again, his lips twitched as though he was trying not to smile, but he followed me out without a word.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “I’m seeing a side of you I had no idea existed,” Iain told me as we rode in a taxi back to Lonna’s apartment.

  “What can I say? Death threats and kidnappings tend to bring the best out of me.”

  The police had beaten us back to Lonna’s apartment. They didn’t indicate that they’d heard we walked out on the detective. Two members of the bomb squad checked the apartment, then my car, and declared them to be clear.

  “Doctor Fisher, Doctor McPherson.” The voice was Galbraith’s. He slammed the door of his antique black sedan and hurried up the stairs in front of the apartment. “The police just contacted me and told me what happened.”

  “We’re getting out of here, Galbraith,” I said. “Someone’s after us.”

  “It appears so. I wanted to tell you I did find those papers of your grandfather’s we discussed. In all the excitement yesterday, I forgot.” He handed me a manila folder. “And I wanted to make sure you are, indeed, unhurt.”

  “Generally, yes,” Iain put in. “Doctor Fisher has hurt her wrist yet again.”

  “Have you had it attended to?”

  “There’s a good orthopedist in Crystal Pines. I’ll talk to him about it.”

  “I would recommend you stay here until you know you’re safe.”

  “I appreciate your concern,” I told him, “but I think that will happen at about the half of never.”

  “Then Godspeed on your journey. Do you know what route you’ll take?”

  “Not yet. It depends on construction.”

  “Please give me a call when you arrive.”

  Galbraith followed the bomb squad and patrol car out of the apartment complex. His car reinforced my initial impression of him as the creepy undertaker in some old B-movie.

  “Was that a little much?” I asked. I looked over the grounds of the apartment complex for a large black wolf to appear. Where was Leo?

  “I believe so. He seemed very concerned.”

  “A little too concerned. Or am I being paranoid?”

  Iain put his hands on my upper arms and squeezed gently. “After surviving two explosions in two days? I would say you haven’t been paranoid enough.”

  “You’re probably right. We still have to find Lonna and Gabriel.”

  “So why are we going back to Crystal Pines? Shouldn’t we revisit the scene of the crime? Look for evidence? See if they were, indeed, kidnapped?”

  “Nope.” I hoped that my impression had been correct and that the clearing had been empty before the explosion. “It’s all been obliterated. And we’re not going back to Crystal Pines.”

  “I see.” That’s what I liked about Iain—he understood that sometimes good research needs tangents. “Where are we going, then?”

  “I’m paranoid, remember? I won’t tell you until we get there. But first we have to wait for Leo.”

  “I always told that cad Robert that you would be the better boss.”

  We walked inside and straightened up the mess the bomb squad had left. If—no, I chided myself, when—Lonna came back, I didn’t want her to find the place trashed.

  Iain yawned. “I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since getting here. Would you mind
if I take a nap while we wait for Leo to reappear?”

  “That’s fine.”

  Iain went to rest. I sat on Lonna’s couch and flipped through a magazine, but I didn’t really see what was in it. Leo stumbled into the apartment a few minutes later. He wore his clothes from the day before.

  “Forget something?” he asked.

  His clothes. From the alley. I put my palm to my forehead. “Whoops, I forgot to get those. I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, good thing I hid them pretty well. Otherwise, my wallet may not have still been in my pocket. I was able to use what little cash I had for a cab. So what’s the plan now?” Although he hadn’t had any more sleep than Iain, he looked as alert and ready for action as he had the day before. His rumpled appearance with his wild hair and a day’s growth of beard reminded me of when I first saw him blasting out of Galbraith’s office like a dark energy fireball. I blushed when I remembered his kiss in my bedroom at the Manor. He was dark and dangerous, and all I wanted to do was jump him, wrap my legs around his waist, and run my fingers through his hair while showing him I could be just as good a kisser as he was.

  “You have an interesting expression on your face, Doctor,” he said.

  The heat in my cheeks intensified. “I’m not at liberty to say why, Doctor. That’s classified information.”

  For a moment, I imagined what the two of us must look like standing there in Lonna’s living room: him rumpled and wild—yes, that word kept coming to mind—and me looking disheveled and forlorn.

  He took my hand, examining my injured wrist again. “This doesn’t look as bad as I thought it would after all that,” he said. When I looked at him, I saw he moved his gaze from my wrist up my arm to my shoulder and my torn shirt, where the edge of my bra peeked out, up my chest to my neck and finally my lips, and I trembled as though he had actually touched me.

  I could barely speak between the heartbeat that seemed simultaneously lodged in my throat and between my legs. “It’s feeling pretty good right now.”

  He pulled me against him, and I leaned into his strength and steadiness. “Someone tried to blow you up,” he said.