Fadi began to sing as other tribe members started beating drums. House knew what a Marabout was. He was a Muslim spiritual leader who also led the people in the religion of their ancestors. Fadi threw off his robe. Beneath it he wore nothing but the skin of a golden wolf. House knew of this breed of wolf. They were a highly endangered species found only in the mountains of Ethiopia. Sarah was right. The golden wolf was this tribe’s totem.
The drum beats sped up as Fadi danced and sang around the fire. The flames reached for the sky as above them the moon glowed like an orange disk against dark-blue velvet. House felt the pull of the moon with every beat of the drums. He glanced toward Daisy and saw her eyes change to red. Daisy was younger than him with less control. The strange ritual was drawing her into the change.
As Fadi danced toward House, his eyes went from brown to gold. Claws appeared on the ends of his fingers, but he didn’t shift into a wolf. He dropped to all fours and then stood up. When he suddenly fell to the ground and began twisting and writhing beneath the wolf skin, Daisy shifted.
She leaped into the center of the circle dropped to her haunches and howled. The assembled men of the tribe gasped as one and leaned forward with an excited, expectant look in their eyes. Fadi, now a strange combination of wolf and man, dropped beside her and howled. The throb of the drums matched the pounding of House’s heart as he fought the change. He would not do that in front of anyone.
Another tribe member stripped off his robes and began the dance. Another followed him and another until ten members gyrated around the fire singing a strange song House couldn’t translate. The words were in a language he didn’t know.
Abdulla turned to him. “We want what you have,” he said. “We want to learn how to complete the shift and become as our ancestors did, golden wolves.”
House dropped his gaze to his boots. “No Abdalla, you don’t want to be like me. It’s a curse you have to live with every day of your life. Look at me. This is the only life I can lead. I’m a soldier, a mercenary. I have no other options. I don’t fit into society anywhere else.”
Abdalla touched his arm with reverence. “Only think what this power could do for us. We could easily defeat our enemies and return to our homeland. You have to give us the secret.”
House turned away from the earnest appeal. He hunched his shoulders and then said. “My ability is inherited. I can’t give it away.”
He watched as the men dancing slowly displayed some of the characteristics of the golden wolf. Two grew a golden pelt, one grew fangs and claws, but none of them could perform an entire change. Maybe they did have the ability but had forgotten how to use it.
As he studied them, an idea formed in his head. One of them approached Daisy, touching her fur. She snarled and attacked, grabbing the man by the throat in her strong jaws. The man immediately morphed into a complete golden wolf and Abdalla cried out. “That was Nasr!”
House leaped to his feet. It had to be the virus. There was an ancient myth that a bite from a werewolf could infect the victim and cause him to turn into a were. But as long as House had lived and through all his father’s teachings, he’d never heard of or seen it happen. But these people already possessed the DNA of a werewolf. Could the components of a werewolf’s saliva complete the chain?
* * * *
Sarah heard the drums beating around the huge fire at the edge of the encampment. No woman would dare intrude, but Daisy was there. Sarah felt a brief surge of impatience with a system so completely archaic and anti-woman.
However, Sarah did not intrude. She went back to her tent and unbraided her hair. She brushed it until it crackled and took off the hideous burqa. With the heavy robe gone, the golden snake bumped around in the pocket of her dress. She took it out and sat on the mat. When she returned to civilization, if she ever did, she would have to get this analyzed by an expert.
When she turned it over and saw the ancient Christian symbols carved into the bottom a strange feeling passed through her. The beating of the drums was so intense and loud she felt like her blood pounded to the rhythm.
“Sarah,” someone whispered.
She clutched the snake harder and looked around the small tent. Who was calling her name?
“Sarah, it’s me, Gopher.”
She squinted. Above her head, Gopher floated on the roof of the tent.
“Are you dead?” she whispered.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t believe you can see me. No one else can.”
“You must be a ghost,” Sarah told him. “I don’t know why I can see you. I’ve never seen a ghost before.”
Gopher floated toward her and she backed up to the edge of the tent. “Don’t come any closer. This is kind of freaking me out.”
“You have something in your hand. I feel drawn to it.”
Sarah opened her hand. The golden snake glowed. “Is it this?”
“Yes,” he said. “I can feel power coming from it.”
Sarah almost dropped the snake. It was hot in her hand.
“Where’re House and Daisy?”
“Out there, by the fire with the Bedouins. They’re doing some kind of ritual. Can you hear the drums?”
“I can,” he said. “I’m going out there. Maybe House can see me.”
Gopher disappeared and Sarah resumed breathing. She’d been holding her breath and didn’t even realize it. She held the golden snake up to her eye level. Did this idol allow her to see ghosts? She hadn’t seen any others, but this was the first time she’d held it in her hand for this length of time. This had been a tough week for her. First she’d seen werewolves and now a ghost. The world was much crazier than she’d ever imagined when she lived in Seattle.
When Gopher swooped back into the tent, she was ready for him. “Could he see you?”
Gopher’s head drooped. “I didn’t see House and none of the Bedouins could see me. There’s some seriously weird shit going on out there, but they couldn’t see me. I didn’t see Daisy either.”
“What kind of weird stuff?” Gopher had all her attention. “And House and Daisy are supposed to be out there. Are you sure you didn’t see them?
“No. These Arabs are sitting around a huge fire beating on drums and wolves are running everywhere. One of the wolves was a huge black bastard with silver eyes. I thought he saw me once, but he ran into the dark and disappeared.”
Sarah knew that was House. She didn’t want to share that information with anyone not even Gopher’s ghost. House’s secrets belonged only to him and Daisy.
“Where is your body?” She asked because House was obsessed with recovering the dead and injured from the disastrous rescue mission. Maybe that had already been done and she could relieve some of his anxiety.
“I don’t know,” Gopher said. “I just woke up and felt drawn to this camp.”
“You need to find it. This could be important and House is worried about the men he left behind.”
“He would be,” Gopher said. “No one gets left behind. It’s like House’s motto.”
“When you find out where your body is, come back and tell me.”
“I will,” Gopher said and was gone.
Chapter 13
Sarah was asleep when House and Daisy returned to the tent. What happened around the fire filled House with excitement and trepidation. Now, all the members of this tribe knew what he and Daisy were. He’d always been very secretive about this, never shifting in front of anyone, never allowing anyone close. Suddenly, an entire tribe knew and so did Sarah. He felt like he’d been outed.
When he lay down beside Sarah, he pulled her close. Daisy lay down on the other side and they cuddled as a threesome; just another aspect of the weirdness swirling around him. He wasn’t comfortable with any of this, not sharing Sarah with Daisy, not having so many people know who he was, none of it.
Sarah opened her eyes and held the golden snake up so he could see it. “Gopher came to see me,” she whispered.
“What?” Daisy leaned
over her shoulder.
“While you were out there dancing around with the men, Gopher came to see me. He’s a ghost.”
House rolled over and threw one arm over his eyes. Weirder and weirder. “How?”
“It’s this,” she waved the idol in front of his face.
“Gopher came to see you because of that gold thingy?” Daisy said.
“He said he woke up and was drawn here, to the golden snake.”
“And you could see him?” House asked. “Are the other men safe or dead? Were their bodies recovered?”
“I told him you’d want to know. He said he’d go back and check. He didn’t really know where his body was. But I could see him. He was floating on the roof of the tent.”
Daisy leaned over her shoulder again. “You ever see ghosts before?”
Sarah shook her head. “Nope. I think it’s the idol.”
“Is he coming back?” House asked.
“He said he would.”
“Make sure you tell me when he comes back. I want to see him. I can’t believe we had to leave them behind. I want to know about Berry, Bam Bam and the new shooter.”
“I wanna know if they got Coop out and poor Freidrick. Gopher will come back. He said he would.”
Daisy snorted. “Now we’re relying on ghosts for Intel. That’s insane.”
“I saw him, Daisy. He was here.”
“Okay, if you say so.”
Sarah pulled away from House and looked down at Daisy. “You were out there doing God knows what, running around howling at the moon and you’re gonna say I didn’t see a ghost that was right here on the roof of this tent talking to me like he was alive?”
Daisy tried to reach up and gather Sarah into an embrace. House growled and pulled her back into his arms. “None of that weird threesome shit tonight. I’m tired.”
They repositioned themselves and snuggled together once more to get comfortable. Daisy didn’t say another word. House held Sarah close and Daisy held her from the other side. House crushed the urge to leap up and fight Daisy for Sarah. She belonged to him and only to him. Soon he would tell her just that.
They slept four hours. At dawn, House woke up and pulled on his boots without waking Sarah and Daisy. It was time to try to get a GPS fix on their location so he could call in a pickup. This early, just before dawn, maybe al Qaida wouldn’t be monitoring the phone. He could get the location and then take the phone far from here and call in for the pickup.
Abdalla was waiting in the big central tent. He sipped tea and held the phone in his hand. It was a first edition Apple I-Phone, one he was familiar with. Nasr, who had run with him as a wolf last night, sat next to his father, eyes alight with excitement.
“We’ll be taking a risk by doing this,” House said. “Are you sure you’re comfortable with that?”
“You have done so much for our tribe, how can I refuse. Because of you, we can complete the change and our tribe has regained their lost heritage. Everything is as it should be. We can go back to our homelands and fight for our rights. We will win and take back all that was stolen. We can drive al Qaida from our land.”
“You really shouldn’t put that much hope into your ability to accomplish such a huge goal as a werewolf. There are so many limitations, like you can’t shoot a gun. You can’t carry any weapons at all. All you’ll have is your power and your jaws.”
“But we will also have the weapon of fear. As wolves we will instill fear into the enemy such as they have never felt before. They will run from us pissing their pants in terror. Which is as it should be. We have regained our heritage thanks to you. There is no way we can properly express our gratitude. Allowing you to use the phone for such a short time, it is little.”
“Okay,” House said. “I just had to be sure.”
He looked at both of them and at the other members of the tribe, some he recognized as wolves he had run with under the full moon. The phone lay in his hand like a scorpion, dangerous, even deadly. He took a deep breath.
Nasr leaned forward, his eyes alight. “Turn it on.”
House took one last look at the men around him and hit the on button. He found the GPS app as fast as he could and touched the locater. It zeroed in on their coordinates and pinged. He wrote them on a piece of paper and switched the phone off. The entire operation had taken less than three minutes.
He stood up. “I’m going to shift and have my companion tie the phone around my neck. When I’m far enough away, I’ll turn it on and call for a pickup.”
“I will run with you,” Nasr said.
House smiled. “If you want to, it’s fine with me.”
Abdalla’s eyes lit beneath his heavy brows. “It is good to be able to say that, eh, my son?”
Nasr’s grin said everything. “We will take back what is rightfully ours.”
* * * *
House went back to his tent and found Daisy naked kissing Sarah whose dress was rucked up around her waist displaying her legs and the junction of her thighs. Rage filled him, hot and red. He growled and tore off his clothes. He’d seen Daisy’s hand between Sarah’s thighs and the sight hurled him over the edge.
Sarah had woken up to find Daisy stroking her sex. She’d smiled and opened her legs in a blatant invitation. Daisy had just kissed her when House entered the tent. His reaction to finding them making out shocked her. His face contorted into a hideous snarl. He growled, tore off his clothes and shifted.
Daisy responded by shifting as well. The two wolves circled each other growling as Sarah shoved her dress down and leaped to her feet. “Stop this right now!” She was forced to scream to be heard over the snarls and growls.
House lifted his head. His silver eyes bored into hers and then he leaped on Daisy. The two wolves fought, crashing around the tent, rolling and tearing at each other’s fur. Terrified, Sarah pushed through the door and out into the morning light without her burqa, just as the entire tent collapsed on top of the two fighting wolves.
The wolves tore their way out of the tent by ripping it apart. When they’d shaken off the pieces of tanned leather, they jumped on each other again. The noise drew a crowd. Sarah shook with fear. Hanifa found her and gathered her close. “Come with me. We must get you decently covered and away from this violence. This is the work of men. They will handle it.”
The fighting wolves had moved away from the wreckage of the tent. Blood poured from Daisy’s left eye and a ragged flap of fur hung from House’s shoulder. Sarah grabbed Hanifa’s arm and stopped her. They turned to watch. Hanifa allowed this, her eyes frozen with horror as the two wolves tore at each other.
“Why are they fighting?” Hanifa whispered.
Sarah’s head drooped. “Over me.”
Hanifa nodded. “We wondered about the woman soldier. She is a man in her heart.”
“It’s my fault. I should have been stronger. Let me go. I can stop them.”
House was on top of Daisy. He had her pinned beneath his greater weight. But Daisy dropped to her belly and rolled grabbing a chunk of House’s neck fur in her jaws. Blood spurted from the wound and House’s snarls escalated into a roar.
Hanifa whimpered. “We should not be here.”
House slapped Daisy with one giant paw knocking her head sideways, then he grabbed her entire muzzle in his jaws. Sarah screamed. “He’s going to kill her.”
She tore away from Hanifa and ran to the two fighting wolves. Daisy’s muzzle was being crushed in House’s huge jaws. Her paws scrabbled at the packed earth as she fought to gain some traction to pull away from House’s death grip.
Desperate, Sarah searched for a weapon. She saw one of the tent poles, picked it up and whacked House hard on the top of his head. “Stop, House, you’ll kill her.”
Daisy took the moment to escape. Leaping to her feet, she shook the blood and saliva out of her eyes and stood with all four feet planted panting with a snarl on her lips. House cast one look at Sarah and coiled to spring.
Sarah was tired of it and t
errified for both of them. She leaped onto Daisy and wrapped her arms around the huge wolf. “Stop fighting over me. I’m not a bone.” Her voice was low and filled with venom. In her pocket, the idol warmed. She felt its power.
House slowly circled Daisy. “House, if you continue, I will never be with you. I love Daisy, too. Don’t hurt her.”
Daisy licked Sarah’s face and Sarah smoothed the ruffled hair on Daisy’s neck. Blood dribbled from a deep wound on the wolf’s head, but the cut was slowly closing and healing itself.
Sarah knelt in the dirt with her arms around Daisy’s neck. The hair on House’s back was still stiff, but gradually began to lay down. He moved closer to Sarah and whined. Sarah sighed. The fight was over. Tears ran down her face, tears of relief. She climbed to her feet. “This is not something you guys need to be doing in front of all these people.” Her voice was so low it was barely a whisper, but she knew they could hear.
“Go find a place to change back.” She lifted the broken tent pieces and found Daisy’s and House’s clothes.
Abdalla stepped out of the crowd of men. “I will take them to a place where they can return to their human form.”
Sarah, acutely aware of her lack of proper clothing, handed him the pile of clothes. “Their boots are in that mess somewhere.” She pointed to the destroyed tent.
Hanifa took her arm and led her away. “Men! They fight over nothing and think it is the answer to everything.”
“You are so right,” Sarah said as she ducked into the kitchen tent. “And Daisy’s no better. She jumped right into it.”
“Daisy is not a woman in the true sense,” Hanifa said. “We’ve had women in our tribe who wished to be as men. The Rizeigat allow them to be warriors. When we still possessed the power to shift into the golden wolf, some of them were able to complete the change and run with the men. You understand what I am telling you?”
Pushing Up Daisies Page 10
