The Mountain's Shadow tlf-1

by Cecilia Dominic

  “Then put my duffel in the trunk.” He unbuttoned the top button of his shirt…and kept going.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I couldn’t help it, I watched him undress. Fine black hair covered his chest and stomach, but I could still see the tense muscles underneath. Running through the woods might not be good for the paws, but he was in excellent shape. I’d never been much for hirsute men, but damn!

  “Ah, Joanie? Perhaps we should give him a moment of privacy.” Lonna grabbed my arm, and we walked back into the hallway.

  “There you go, ruining the show.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t think I want to see that show.”

  We heard a whimper, and a moment later, something wet licked my hand. I looked down into Leo’s eyes in a black canine face.

  “I guess we’re going to have to take you now, aren’t we?”

  The wolf’s lips parted in a snarl.

  “Okay, okay!”

  He barely fit in the backseat, let alone the well, but we covered him with a blanket. A casual glance wouldn’t reveal too much, I hoped.

  “Are you ready to do this?” I asked.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be. Leo?”

  A noise between a bark and a yip came from under the blanket in the back.

  “Does this mean I’ll be able to say whatever I want to you, and you can’t talk back?”

  “Not necessarily, elf-girl.” The words brought me back to seeing them that night on the lawn with the deer, and I remembered that I was dealing with a predator whose animal brain was now in full gear.

  “Gotcha. And don’t call me elf-girl.”

  “What?” Lonna looked from me to the blanketed lump in the backseat. “I didn’t call you elf-girl.”

  “No, but he did.” My heart skipped a beat. “What did you hear?”

  “Just a woof or something.”

  “So I can understand them and you can’t.” Just like I had understood my brother from the cradle. I remembered my father yelling at him, telling him to speak like a human boy. I had tried to protect Andrew because his speech sounded muffled, but I could still make out what he said.

  I didn’t breathe easily until we got out of the Crystal Pines gates and on the road. Even then, I felt uneasy about our passenger and the trip in general, especially with this new revelation. Did that mean I was genetically predisposed? Or did I have some other, more sinister talent?

  Chapter Fifteen

  Grief has a funny way of sneaking up on you. It’s like one day you’re out getting groceries or something, and then wham! It punches you in the middle of the chest, or maybe the solar plexus, and it would bring you to your knees if you weren’t afraid of dropping the eggs.

  It’s a good thing Lonna was driving when it happened to me. Leo snoozed in the backseat, still in his lupine form. I was watching the road signs as I used to when I was little, looking at the towns we passed, their posted populations, and trying to remember which had been the smallest when I had been a lot smaller. For a moment, I was back there with my mother, her perfectly manicured hands tight on the wheel, her knuckles white, and her teeth clenched with the desire to be away from “that godforsaken place”. It seemed like every town, no matter how small, put a new obstacle between me and Wolfsbane Manor, the only place where I felt loved and protected.

  I snapped back to the present when Lonna asked if I needed a bathroom or coffee break.

  “You looked like you were in another world there.”

  “I think I was.”

  “What were you thinking about?”

  “Nothing.” But the images crowded my mind, and the words caught in my throat in their rush to be the first ones out. Would I tell her about the pretend balls we held, when we would go down into the ballroom and dance with our candles, which would cast weird shadows on the ceiling and make the eyes of the painted woodland animals glow? Or should I tell her about the long hikes we’d take down to the river and the stories he’d tell me about the trees and bugs? What about his patience for my hundreds of questions? It had always taken me a few days to wind down and get used to being quiet after my visits up there.

  “We’ll be going back soon,” she promised me with a pat on my arm.

  I nodded, too choked up to say anything. Leo gazed up at me with expressive canine eyes, his losses echoing my own. It seemed that we had all lost something up there. Or had maybe found something but hadn’t been able to hold on to it. The only question would be what Lonna would have to sacrifice.

  Lonna dropped me off at Galbraith’s office at five minutes until two, then drove off to take Leo to her apartment, where he could transform back to human and dress. Then she’d drive him to UAMS and go to her office, which was right down the street from the hospital complex.

  The air inside Galbraith’s foyer was stuffy, and I wondered if the air-conditioning was broken. If so, that would motivate me to get this meeting over with quickly. I hesitated at the door, all too mindful of what had happened the last time I was early. Leo seemed to be a different person every time I saw him, which made dealing with him unpredictable and oh-so-exciting. I was happy to hear that the relationship between him and Kyra Ellison was one-sided, as much of a bitch as that made me.

  Galbraith opened the door himself. “Doctor Fisher, there’s no need to stand outside in the heat. Why don’t you come in?”

  “Um, thanks.”

  “I apologize. The air is broken in the foyer. I’ve called the maintenance crew, but there’s no telling when they’ll be here.”

  “Typical.”

  “There’s someone who’s been wanting to meet you.”

  “Actually, it’s to see her again,” said a voice I hadn’t heard in years.

  “Iain?”

  A tall figure emerged from the gloom in the back of Galbraith’s office, where three chairs sat around a low, round table with an antique coffee service. Iain McPherson. I hadn’t seen him since the International Behavioral Genetics Society meeting in London a few years ago.

  “Joanna, you still haven’t managed to hit five-two have you?” he taunted as he enveloped me in a bony hug. Between us, we may have had enough body fat for one normal skinny person. He’d always reminded me of a greyhound with his lanky build and long nose.

  “Iain, you’re as obnoxiously British as ever.”

  “That’s Scottish, young lady.”

  “Uh-huh. Technicality. You’re still part of Great Britain.”

  He rolled his eyes. He had a few more wrinkles around them and a little more gray, but he had hardly changed at all. He was still the same old Iain, whom I’d joked was my conference husband even though he didn’t share his bed with women.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked as we sat down. Galbraith passed me a white porcelain cup and poured coffee out of a silver pot.

  “Your grandfather and I had been corresponding. He said he was close to a breakthrough and would let me know how it shaped up soon, but then I heard nothing from him.”

  “He’s, ah, deceased, we think.”

  “I’m so dreadfully sorry to hear about that.” He leaned over and squeezed my hand. “Galbraith had seen the letters I sent Charles and had contacted me to that effect. Of course I had to come and see if he had left anything, if I could pick up where he stopped.”

  “Right. That’s what I’m trying to do as well.”

  “You’re no longer with Cabal?”

  “They got bought. There was a fire. Just bad timing all around. I got laid off.”

  “Why would a company that has so much to gain with the new gene therapies lay off their most promising epidemiologic specialist in CLS?”

  I looked away. “I don’t know. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

  “What about that chap you were working with, Robert?”

  “He’s still there.” I didn’t say anything else and hoped that he would get the hint. He had known there was something going on between the two of us, but I didn’t want to discuss tha
t in front of Galbraith.

  “I see.”

  Galbraith cleared his throat. “So you had some questions for me?”

  “Would you like me to step outside?” asked Iain.

  “No, that’s okay. I think I may need your help with this matter soon.” I took a deep breath. “I know that the circumstances surrounding my grandfather’s death are somewhat suspicious.”

  Galbraith inclined his head.

  “I was wondering if he’d actually made arrangements recently. Did he seem to think he was in danger?”

  “He essentially told me that he was going into the field and would likely encounter peril there. He wanted it to be expressly stated that he wanted you to have the bulk of the estate. I had the impression he counted on you to continue his work.”

  “Were there any safe-deposit boxes or anywhere else he might have left papers or notes for me?”

  Galbraith frowned. “Not that I can recall, but I will look through the documents again to see if, in my dotage, I misplaced something. There was one folder that he wanted me to hold for you until you had become more acquainted with the Manor and its secrets.”

  And the werewolves. “What do you know about this butler he arranged for me? You said there was something I needed to know.”

  “Yes, Gabriel…” He tapped the arm of his chair. “His last name escapes me at the moment.”

  “It’s McCord,” Iain said. “Gabriel McCord.”

  “You know him?”

  “If it’s the same bloke I’m remembering. He was a member of the Society in the UK, sort of a research assistant, but he wasn’t at the meeting you came to. He certainly was interested in your work, though. He made copies of all the slides and notes I brought back.”

  “When was that?” Galbraith asked.

  “Five years ago, to the month.” I did some mental calculations. “You’re missing the meeting right now, aren’t you?”

  “I am, but it’s worth it to see you again.”

  “Flatterer.”

  “That’s interesting,” Galbraith said as he got up and moved around to his desk to pull out a file. “I believe your grandfather had me start looking for domestic help at about this time last year, and this Gabriel person contacted me in response to the advertisement we placed.”

  “My grandfather actually looked for a butler?”

  “He was planning on having some renovation done on the house, and he wanted someone to keep the mess and chaos at bay while he worked. He had a woman from the village who would cook and clean for him occasionally, but he needed something a little more permanent.”

  “That must have been Louise.” I tried to block the memory of the last time I’d seen her. “Who also died under suspicious circumstances.”

  “Really?” Iain raised an eyebrow at me. “Does death always follow you, or is this a recent development?”

  “It has ever since the fire.” I fingered the tip of the scar at my collarbone. “That’s when the chaos started.”

  The braying of a car alarm startled the three of us.

  “That’s my rental!” Iain jumped and headed toward the door. “What could have set that off?”

  My mind flashed back to the night my lab burned. The sound of my car alarm had broken my concentration and called my attention to the smoke that crept under the door.

  It's nothing to worry about. But there was something else, some small noise I couldn’t identify. My heart thudded in my chest and sent roaring waves through my throat and skull. Every instinct told me something wasn’t right. Iain opened the door to the lobby, and I ran after him.

  “Don’t go out there!” I gasped and held on to the sleeve of his jacket.

  “I have to see what set it off! It’s going to eat up the battery!”

  “Give it a minute. Maybe it’ll go off.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Joanna! All I have to do is click the lock button to stop it.”

  My stomach clenched as he opened the heavy wooden door and pointed the remote at the black Lexus. I forced myself to watch as he pushed the button so I could yank him inside as soon as the alarm stopped. We tumbled to the floor just inside the door and knocked over an end table.

  “Joanie, what the hell?”

  The wooden door with its metal core saved us from the brunt of the explosion. The whole building rocked with its force, and the windows shattered inward. If we had been farther into the room, we would have been shredded. Smoke poured under the door, and we coughed, holding each other tightly as we cowered by the wall. We didn’t dare move.

  “Are you okay?” he finally asked.

  I almost didn’t hear him over the ringing in my ears. “I think so. You?”

  “Yes.” The stubble of his chin scraped against my forehead. I picked up my hand from the floor and hissed in pain—it was the same one Leo had adjusted a few nights before.

  “You’re hurt.”

  “An old injury.”

  “Is everyone okay in there?” a voice called from outside. “It’s the fire department. Please respond.”

  “We’re fine,” Iain called back.

  “Don’t move! We’re concerned you may be injured. Someone will get you out in a second.”

  “That was fast,” Iain commented.

  “I guess they don’t get many big explosions in Little Rock. And the fire station is just down the road.”

  “I didn’t hear the sirens. Must be the ringing in my ears.”

  The inner door opened, and Galbraith looked out, his expression one of concern, then shock.

  “Doctor Fisher, Doctor McPherson? Are you all right?”

  “I think so. Don’t come any further—there’s glass everywhere.”

  The outside door swung open, and a fireman in full gear came through. “Is everyone all right in here?” he asked.

  “Yes. Can we get up now?”

  He held out his hand and helped me up first—by my uninjured hand—and then Iain. Galbraith picked his way across the debris.

  “We have to make sure the building is still sound,” the fireman said. “And the two of you should get checked out at the hospital just to make sure you are. The paramedics are here if you want to talk to them.”

  I wondered why he didn’t say the same to Galbraith, but then realized that Iain and I both had soot on our faces and dust in our hair. My left hand throbbed.

  “I’m fine, but Doctor Fisher has injured her wrist in the fall.” Iain stopped when he saw the smoldering wreck of what had been his car. “My god!”

  “Was anyone on the road?” I asked, craning to see.

  “No, luckily there was a lull in traffic when the car exploded.”

  A policeman walked up to us. “Was this your car, sir?”

  Iain ran a hand through his hair. “It was a rental.”

  “And when did you pick it up?”

  Something still didn’t add up. I let the paramedic look at my wrist as Iain answered the policeman’s questions. No, he hadn’t let anyone else have the keys to the car, no he hadn’t valet parked it anywhere, yes, the rental place would know the history of the vehicle better than he would, yes, he had called ahead and requested a luxury vehicle…

  I started, and the EMT apologized for jarring my wrist.

  “No, it wasn’t you,” I told the earnest young man.

  “Well, you should put some ice on it. It’s swelling.”

  I nodded but was too busy following my own train of thought to hear him. There had been a noise outside the window, a noise I’d heard before. It was what had warned me of the impending explosion. But that was as far as my memory would go.

  Again, that feeling of being watched, those invisible fingers across the back of my neck that raised all the hairs. I tried not to be obvious about it as I looked around. A shadow at the corner of the building detached itself from the other shadows and moved into the alleyway beside Galbraith’s office. The shadow turned, its tongue lolling out at me, and my heart stopped. The black wolf. Before I could be sure,
it was gone, but I could hear Louise’s warning in my mind.

  The black wolf knows.

  That was the noise I had heard—the sound of an animal prowling outside the window. It was the same noise I’d heard the night of the fire before my car alarm went off and before the explosion in the hallway that started the fire. I remembered it now.

  “What happened?” Lonna pulled up with Leo in the car, and he leapt out of the passenger seat. He stopped short when he saw Iain.

  “Who’s this?”

  “Iain McPherson. He’s another CLS researcher.”

  “And you are…” Iain raised an eyebrow.

  “Leonard Bowman.” He looked straight into Iain’s eyes. “Doctor Leonard Bowman.”

  “Leo, that’s enough.” I pulled him aside. “Do you remember the black wolf?”

  His nostrils flared. “Why?”

  “I think I just saw him.”

  “Give me five minutes, then get my clothes out of the alley.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Track him.”

  “Isn’t that dangerous?” I glanced over my shoulder and saw Iain watching us. Poor guy, he had no idea what he’d just gotten himself into. But he’d be so excited to hear about what we’d found if he could get past the shock.

  “No more dangerous than letting him roam around and making cars explode.”

  “Touché. Fine. Good luck.”

  He made sure that no one watched him, then darted into the alleyway and disappeared into the shadows.

  “Is he...?” asked Lonna when I returned to the group alone.

  “Yep.”

  She nodded. “You’ll have to fill me in later.”

  The rest of the day was a whirlwind. First we had to talk to the cops. Then to the bomb-squad guys. Then to another policeman, this one in plainclothes, at the station. Iain had to make a call to his travel-insurance company and straighten out things with the rental-car company as well as replace everything that had been in his suitcase in the trunk. Luckily he’d taken his laptop as well as his wallet and passport into Galbraith’s office, so the difficult-to-replace items had been spared. Lonna had left us at the police station to go to her office and finally rescued us just as the sun was setting. She suggested that we go out for dinner, but I wanted to be safely indoors if the black wolf was prowling about.