Blood for Wolves (19 page)

Several people shouted back in
challenge.

“He’s a wolf!”

“Burn him!”

“Those were my cows he killed!”

The man with the torch bent forward
and started to touch the fire to the bits of kindling. Alex saw him and grabbed
the torch out of his hand, throwing it into a nearby horse trough.

“He did not kill those animals!” he
yelled. The anger in his voice silenced many of them, but not all. He took a
different tactic and reached into his coat, pulling out something that shined.

“You doubt the word of a Sentry
from the House of Hood?”

He held it up for the people to
see. As he moved his hand around, I caught a glimpse of it. A badge. This time
the entire crowd went as silent as a graveyard.

“I saw the creature that killed
your animals,” Alex continued. “When I went to investigate the matter for
myself, I saw it feeding on one of the cows.”

He stopped, letting them absorb
what he was saying.

“What was it?” a woman finally
yelled. A murmur of approval went through the crowd.

“It looked like a,” he hesitated,
as if saying it would make him certifiably insane, “a werewolf.”

Gasps and shrieks went up from the
crowd.

“It can’t be!” a man shouted. “Werewolves
were banished long ago.”

The crowd started to agree.

“Apparently they’re back,” Alex
snapped. “And that’s what you should be hunting. Not burning this man.”

“Why didn’t you kill it?” someone
yelled.

“I didn’t have enough time to get a
shot off. It ran away into the woods to the east.”

The people went silent again,
unsure of how to handle this new information. They knew they had a wolf in
custody, but with a Sentry telling them he was innocent and a werewolf was
wandering nearby no one seemed to know what to do. I tugged at the ropes around
my hands. They bit into my wrists, refusing to budge.

“Well,” one man started, “we still
have a wolf. We should burn him anyway!”

That got the crowd going again. Wolf
growled, straining at his bonds.

“You will do no such thing,” Alex
yelled over the commotion. “He is innocent, and therefore you will let him go.”

“You’re a Sentry! Why do you want
to let a wolf go?”

“Because he’s a half-wolf. A
half-wolf is half human as well. He is what he is through no fault of his own.”

“No good can come from any wolf!”

The mob started to get more
violent. Alex pointed at Wolf again.

“This man saved my life!”

The square went quiet. The whole
area was like a crazed see-saw, and it was all Alex could do to keep his side
down.

“He saved my life,” he said again,
“and I owe him a debt.” He gazed at the sea of faces. This new bit of
information seemed to be more than they could comprehend. “And what is the
matter with all of you? Burning an innocent woman as well?”

“She’s a wolf lover!” a man next to
Alex yelled.

In one swift movement Alex had his
crossbow out and pointed at the man’s chest, acting in a way he thought a
Sentry might act.

“One more word out of you fella,
and I’ll sink a bolt into your heart.”

I had the best damn stepbrother
ever. Finally I managed to loosen the rope around Wolf’s wrists enough and he
jerked his hands free. But instead of trying to escape he wrapped his arms
around me protectively.

“I’ve had enough out of all of you.
Get up there and release them. They’re coming with me.”

After several agonizing minutes, a
few men finally came up and grudgingly untied us. I jumped down behind Alex, Wolf
right at my heels. Alex moved forward and the crowd parted. Some of the people
looked cowed, others angry, and some just plain confused. Once we were away
from the square, we made our way to the phantom building. On the way, Wolf
wrapped Alex in a huge hug.

“Thank you Alex. We would have both
been burned to ashes if not for you.”

“Yeah, well, you’re welcome,” Alex
said, adjusting his coat amidst his discomfort. “What did you really do,
anyway?”

Wolf’s face went red. He cleared
his throat. “I uh, I ate a sheep.”

Alex shook his head, at a loss for
words.

“Did you really see a werewolf?” I
asked, still trying to shake off the fear of being burned alive.

“Whatever the hell it was, it sure
as hell looked like one. Like a man and a wolf, put together.”

“That’s bad,” Wolf said, deeply
troubled. “Very bad. With werewolves around, it’s going to get worse than ever.
People hate wolves enough as it is. If they find out that half-wolves can
become werewolves, and half-wolves sometimes come from full wolves…”

I wanted to ask, “But why emerge
now?” but a shift in the area jarred my senses.

“Oh God,” I said. “It’s waking up.”

I ran down the street, Alex and
Wolf right behind me, and slid to a stop in front of the phantom house.

It was already shifting, darkening,
unbecoming a house and turning back into the tall, smoky werewolf creature. Through
the darkness I could see Marianne curled up inside of it. I snatched up the
bouquet of bluebells and morning glory vines we’d left there. The beast let out
a snarl that sounded like it’d been scraped across gravel. Its eyes glowed red
and its claws had to be at least a few inches long. I shoved my terror down and
I waved the bouquet in front of it.

“Over here!”

The werewolf’s eyes turned toward
me, focusing on the bluebells.
That’s it,
I thought,
it found
Marianne through the bluebells
.

Alex let fly a bolt, but it sailed
right through the werewolf, burying into a house wall behind it.

“Come on, down here!” I yelled,
shaking the bouquet. The beast looked back and forth from Marianne to the
bouquet, uncertain.

Suddenly a silver object hit it on
the side of its head. Alex’s horseshoe. The werewolf’s eyes opened wider, and it
opened its mouth and an ear-piercing roar ripped through the air, dropping the
three of us to our knees. I squinted through the pain and then realized this
could be my chance. I leapt to my feet, running behind the phantasm and
grabbing onto its shaggy hair. I half expected to fall through it, but to my
surprise it felt solid under my hands. I hauled myself up and threw the morning
glory vines around its neck.

The creature reared and roared
again, throwing me back to the ground. I got up and grabbed the crossbow bolt
from the wall. The werewolf seemed more baffled than ever, its roar weakening. It
looked down at Marianne in confusion. Then Marianne woke up.

“Marianne!” I yelled. “Think of
snowdrops! Think of snowdrops!”

She squeezed her eyes shut. The beast
tossed its wild head, shrieking horribly. Alex and Wolf threw more objects from
Alex’s pouch. Some worked, others didn’t. I threw the bouquet of bluebells down
the street. For a moment nothing happened. Then the magical apparition bolted
toward the bouquet—and left Marianne sitting on the street.

It didn’t take the thing long to
realize that wasn’t right. I dug my hand into my own pouch and pulled out the
vial of juniper and clover.
Please let this work.
I smashed it against a
building, ignoring the pain of glass shards biting into my palm, and wiped the
bolt down with the liquid in my hand. The werewolf spun around and leaped at
me. I ducked out of the way and its claws swept past me, grazing my arm. The
beast skidded to a halt and snarled at me over its shoulder. Then it froze. It
looked at its claws. Black tendrils reached up from where my blood wetted its
claws and slithered up its arm. Its fingers started to disappear.

I didn’t know what it was doing,
but I wasn’t going to wait to find out. I jumped onto a stack of crates and
then onto the back of the creature, holding onto it for dear life. The thing
whipped around, and I caught sight of its hand disappearing. Dark smoke rose up
to engulf us both. Behind us Wolf shouted my name. I pulled my arm back and
shoved the bolt deep into the werewolf’s back.

This time it didn’t go through its
body like smoke. It let out another bellow, and I thought my eardrums would
burst. The beast bucked and howled like it had been shot. I let go, tumbled
through the smoke, and crashed to the ground. A burning pain stabbed through my
arm when I hit. Wolf was at my side in a moment. I looked over my shoulder
where the creature thrashed and convulsed. Finally it dropped to the ground, the
darkness washing over the street like a black liquid, before finally
dissipating into the air.

I lay where I was for several
moments, breathing hard. My hand shook, bleeding from the pieces of glass
sticking out of it. But we’d killed it. We’d defeated a magic spell. Probably
not in any normal way, but who cared?

Distant shouts and cries of
surprise floated down the street to us.

“Time to leave,” Alex said. He held
Marianne in one arm, her face buried into his shoulder, and threw my daypack to
Wolf.

Wolf hauled me
to my feet, and together we ran from the town.

We traveled the rest of the day,
Wolf tenderly picking the glass out of my hand and occasionally giving it a
lick. Marianne hadn’t moved from Alex’s shoulder. I supposed she was in shock. I
wanted to talk to her, but I left her alone for the moment. Alex was already
doing a fine job of that, speaking to her quietly and telling her positive
things. I hoped she would come around soon, though I wouldn’t have been
surprised if she ended up scarred for life. And who could blame her?

“So what did that?” Alex finally
asked.

“Juniper and clove oil,” I said as
Wolf licked my palm again.

“Mm,” Wolf said. “Maybe.”

“What do you mean maybe?” I winced
a little as he pulled a sliver of glass out of my finger.

“There is something undeniably
sweet about your blood,” he said as if that were completely normal conversation
material.

“I thought you were fixed now that
the full moon was gone.”

“I am. But there is something in
your blood. Remember how it was so much easier for me to find you when you
started bleeding?”

“Okay, can we discuss this later?”
Alex said, frowning uncomfortably.

But I already knew what Wolf meant.
The harpies. He’d said he was able to find me much quicker after they’d injured
me, all thanks to whatever was in my blood. I’d just chalked it up to the
amount of chocolate I ate. Then again, when the phantom werewolf clawed my arm,
its entire hand began to disappear.

“How is she?” I looked to Marianne.

Alex sighed. “Still hasn’t said
anything. Probably still thinking of snowdrops.”

A muffled noise escaped Alex’s
shoulder. “No, I’m not.”

I couldn’t help but smile with
relief. Marianne finally peeked out, first eyeing me and then Wolf.

“What’s he doing here?” she asked.

Wolf released my injured hand and
tried to look at docile as possible.

I patted his cheek with my good
hand. “He’s on our side. I know that must sound strange to you, but he’s been
helping us find you so we can take you back home. That’s how I was able to find
you when the giants gave you to those men.”

“Wolves don’t listen to people. My papa
told me that.”

“I know honey, and most of the time
they don’t. Your papa’s right. But this one listens to me.”

I shot a glance at Wolf, hoping
that was an okay thing to say. The corner of his mouth quirked in a smile.

“He was going to eat me!”

Wolf huffed. “I was not.”

“Were too!”

“Was not!”

“You had a big knife and you were
going to carve me up and make me into stew!”

Wolf growled a little to himself. “I
never should have picked up that knife. Everyone’s been judging me more on that
than being a half-wolf.”

I shook my head and then put a hand
on Marianne’s shoulder. “I thought he was going to hurt me too, but I was
wrong. He was just a little confused.” Not really, but it was the best I could
come up with. “He’s been very good since then.”

“You never said anything about a
knife,” Alex said, giving me a disturbed sidelong look.

But before I could answer, Marianne
finally seemed to realize another strange person was carrying her.

“Who are you?”

Alex gave her his most dazzling
grin. “I’m Caroline’s brother Alex.”

Marianne leaned back enough to
examine him. “You look like one of those men from the castle.” She mulled this
over for a moment, then pointed at Wolf. “Aren’t you supposed to be chasing
him?”

“I’m not actually a Sentry and no. I
don’t hunt wolves.”

Marianne looked more confused than
ever. I tried to think of a way to explain things.

“Do you remember when you first saw
me?” I asked.

She nodded. “I went through the
pond because I thought it would be safer on the other side.”

“So you knew there was another
side?”

Her head bobbed again.

“That’s where Alex and I come from.
That side is very different from this place. That’s why I didn’t know about the
giants or the wolves. I’ve never been to this side.”

She considered this as we walked. Wolf
took up my hand, gave it one last lick, and then smeared chewed up lavawort all
over it. He must have grabbed some as we walked. Then he smoothed a gum leaf
over the mess of red and green.

“Try not to move your hand too
much,” he said. I smiled at him and he turned his attention to the claw marks
on my arm. Luckily they weren’t too deep.

“Do I get to go home now?” Marianne
asked.

“Yes,” I said. “That’s where we’re
taking you. But we need to know some things so we can make sure you stay safe
on the way.”

“Like what?”

“Why were your parents taking you
to the kingdom? You said they wanted you to be safer there. Why did you get to
go and none of your friends did?”

She made a face at the thought of
being forced to leave all her friends. “I don’t know. I think it’s because the
wolves killed my sister. I think they were worried they might kill me too.”