Boundary Lines (21 page)

I told her all of it, beginning with what I understood of the werewolf war. That explanation alone filled up all the time in between our brief stops at a hardware store and a butcher, plus a run out to my cabin. Sashi waited in the car while I let out the dogs, grabbed my homemade ghillie suit, and changed my clothes—I could only fight evil so long without a bra.

By the time we were finally on our way north I had moved on to the sandworm, the vampire uprising, the werewolf attacks, and the meeting with Nellie Evans, which fascinated Sashi. It took almost the entire rest of the drive north.

“Ley lines,” Sashi marveled after I finished. “I’ve heard the term, but I had no idea they actually existed. I thought it was just a silly form of misdirection, like the idea that vampires can’t stand holy relics.”

“Yeah, well, apparently they’re real, and whatever has awakened this particular fragment has stirred up enough magic to essentially force the werewolves to break their promise,” I told her. “And if I don’t do something, now,
today
, Maven is gonna learn who caused all of this and quite possibly declare war. She’ll practically be obliged to attack, if she wants to appear strong enough to hold the state. I have to find the witch who did it and stop him or her before Maven does.” I made a face. “Believe me, I have no love for the werewolves, either, but I can’t think of any other way to do this.”

Sashi absorbed my words quietly for a moment. “I’ve just . . . I want to help you, but I’ve seen them get violent before, Lex. And I know you’re strong, but these people . . .”

So, probably not a good time to tell her how Sam had died, then. “I brought my silver bullets,” I offered.

Her face was still bleak. “That’s assuming you get a shot. The
werewolves are beyond normal strength . . . normal weapons.”

“I know,” I said grimly. “But just this once, I’m counting on that.”

Chapter 33

Sashi eventually agreed to the plan, even though she was obviously worried about it. I’d been prepared to offer her a bonus, out of my own pocket if necessary, but she didn’t even hint that she wanted more money. She seemed to understand I was doing my best to help, and I respected her for that.

We made it up to the wolf preserve around four. The daily feeding tour had already started, which meant one of the staff members was out leading the tour, leaving two more inside. Since Sashi had the phobia about wolves, her job would be to go inside and chat with the employees, making sure they stayed away from the windows. “Don’t worry,” she said, still looking a little unnerved, but determined. “If I can have a chat with my patients while I heal them, I can certainly manage this.”

She dropped me off at the entrance gate and proceeded into the visitors’ center on her own. At this elevation, twilight was already starting to fall, and the thick patches of trees made it appear even darker than it was. I was hoping that the fading light and the ghillie suit would conceal me from the guests on the tour, who would have to look through the darkened pens, the trees, and the wolves to spot me.

I remembered the way to Tobias’s enclosure, and crept there after I was sure the tour group had already moved past that area. A couple of his neighbors trotted over and growled suspiciously at me, but I threw a couple of extra chunks of shoulder roast at them, and they ignored me to eat the goodies. I had half a vial of doggie painkillers in my pocket from my dog Chip’s last surgery, but I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use them. I’d be guessing at a dosage, and I didn’t actually want to hurt any of the wolves.

At Tobias’s pen, there was no sign of the dark wolf, but I was short on time, so I just lifted the massive bolt cutters I’d bought and began cutting the chain links on the outer fence. The snap of each piece of metal sounded so loud to my ears—too loud. The tour was only a couple hundred feet away, and I figured they’d think the first one or two snaps were just twigs breaking, but any more than that was liable to get me in trouble. I paused, not sure what to do.

Before I could decide, my eyes caught movement in the dim light, and I looked up in time to see Tobias creeping toward the interior fence, the back of his dusty brown fur standing up with hostility. When he saw me, his ears flicked back and forth uncertainly. He came right up to the fence, bared his teeth, then dropped his lip, whining and pacing back a few feet as he tried to figure out why I had returned. “Tobias,” I whispered, “I need to talk to you. Please shake your fur if you understand what I’m saying.”

The brown wolf hesitated for a moment, then stiffened his legs and shook himself hard. I sighed in relief. I’d been half afraid that he would be too far gone, after spending so much time fighting the call of the ley line vestige. Tobias sat down and watched me warily. “Okay,” I said. “Listen: I know why the moon lines have been calling you, and I think I can help. In return, I need you to help me stop a war between all the Old World factions. But I’ve got to break you out of here first.”

He gave me a baleful look, giving no indication that he either understood or cared. Crap. I hadn’t considered the possibility that Tobias simply wouldn’t give a shit. “You remember what it was like when Trask was in charge?” I asked him.

That got his attention. The big wolf bared his canines and growled at me. “I know,” I said. “I’ve been to my own war. But if I don’t do something, if
we
don’t do something, that’s gonna happen again. People are going to die, and some of them will be werewolves.”

The wolf looked from me to the bolt cutters. Then the fences. Finally he chuffed unhappily and trotted to the opposite end of his pen, near where the tour group was still circling. Where I certainly couldn’t follow.

For a moment I thought that was it—Tobias had refused, and even if I snapped the whole fence apart, I couldn’t exactly go in there and drag him out. It would blow his cover, for one thing, and he’d have no choice but to attack me, which meant I’d have no choice but to shoot him.

Then Tobias began howling, which prompted the other wolves to join the chorus. It drew the attention of the tour group members—and made a heck of a racket. Grinning, I lifted the bolt cutters again and quickly snapped off a big circular chunk of fence, large enough to accommodate even a wolf of Tobias’s size. I darted through the opening, scrambled the few feet to the interior fence, and repeated the process as quickly as I could. Tobias must have heard or sensed my progress, because he kept the howls going until I was finished. A moment later the howls petered off and Tobias returned. I pulled the chunk of fencing free, he carefully stepped through it, and just like that, we took off for the road.

I texted Sashi to let her know we were ready, and Tobias and I crouched in a ditch while we waited. Between the falling darkness, his brown fur, and my ghillie suit, we really were damned-near invisible. Sashi arrived a moment later, and I opened the back door for Tobias to climb into the vehicle. He was enormous, but the trusty old Subaru had a big backseat, and I was used to hauling canines around. Tobias got busy sniffing the cushions with great enthusiasm. I could see Sashi gripping the wheel tighter when the enormous wolf moved around the seat, but he ignored her, and after a few minutes her shoulders dropped away from her ears.

I directed her to the same secluded spot where I’d pulled over on my last trip. Tobias hopped out and trotted into the woods, while I set out a cheap pair of men’s sweat pants, a T-shirt, and a hoodie from the hardware store. They hadn’t sold any shoes, and I didn’t know his size anyway, so he’d have to go barefoot for now. Then I climbed back into the passenger seat next to Sashi and started stripping off the ghillie suit. I was wearing regular street clothes underneath.

Sashi eyed me. “You’re very good at this werewolf jailbreak business,” she remarked.

I gave her a wry smile. “Thanks. If Maven fires me for this, maybe I can go pro.”

We waited. Five minutes slipped by, and then ten. I texted Cara to check on Grace, and learned that the girl was in the process of eating her weight in Mexican food and was a happy camper. More time passed, and soon the sun dipped below the tree line and disappeared entirely. I started to worry. Maven and Quinn had said the werewolves needed a week to recover in between changes, but how did that work when the werewolf in question spent most of his time in wolf form? Did he still need as much time to recover, and if so, could he get, like, stuck between forms? I hadn’t thought of that, either.

Thirty minutes after we’d stopped, I saw movement in the woods, and a moment later Tobias was fumbling with the door to the backseat. He finally got it open and slouched in. Sashi and I twisted around to face him.

“Hope you’re happy,” he muttered. “Stuck now. Stuck on man side.”

“Forever?” I asked Tobias.

He shrugged. “Week. Two.” He looked at Sashi and tilted his head. “Don’t know this smell.”

“Tobias, this is Sashi,” I introduced. “She’s a witch.” He nodded his head, and Sashi gave him a little wave. “We need you to help us find the other werewolves,” I said to him. He immediately began to glower at me, and I rushed to add, “No, they’re not in any trouble, I promise. But we need their help.”

“To prevent war,” he said clearly.

That sounded so lucid, I had to work to keep the surprise off my face. “Yes. Can you tell me more about the other werewolves? The name of the alpha, for example?”

He gave me a blank look. “Mary-Cammie-Ryan-Matt-Alex-Jamie,” he said.

“Right. Which one of them is the alpha?” I asked. He just shrugged at me. “Do you know any of their last names?” Now he tilted his head in confusion, like last names were some weird, useless human detail like male nipples. “How about what they look like?”

“People,” he said promptly. “Wolves, sometimes.”

This wasn’t getting us anywhere. I looked at Sashi, and she nodded. “Listen, Tobias,” I began again, “Sashi has some experience with healing. She’s going to try to help you with your . . . um . . .”

“Help clear your head,” Sashi volunteered. She still looked a bit shaky, but seemed to be controlling it okay. “Is it okay if I come back there and sit by you?”

Tobias looked a little dubious, but he nodded. Sashi climbed out of the front and got in the backseat by him. I watched him closely, ready to grab the sidearm out of the glove compartment where I’d stashed it, but he only looked at her with mild curiosity.

“I’m going to touch your arm,” she said gently. Tobias allowed her to put both her hands on his wrist. He and I watched silently as Sashi closed her eyes, frowning. Her face was concentrated, like she was listening to something, and her brow furrowed even more. Finally her eyes opened. “It’s not working.”

“What?” Tobias asked.

“My job is to help people by healing their bodies,” she explained to him. “Sometimes their minds, too. I can’t usually use my magic on other Old World creatures, but I was able to help Lex earlier today, so we thought maybe I’d be able to help you, too.”

“Don’t need help,” Tobias said mournfully. “Need wolf. Food. Den.” He shuddered. “Hate man side.”

Sashi and I exchanged a look. “We need to be closer to Boulder,” I said.

She nodded. “If the ley line is really what’s responsible for the boost in magic, I need to be closer to it.”

“Moon lines!” Tobias said, bouncing excitedly in his seat. “Go to moon lines!”

I scooted over and started the car. “I guess it’s unanimous.”

I started south on the highway. At Tobias’s request, we went through a Good Times drive-thru in Fort Collins, and he happily munched on French fries and frozen custard and enough burgers to turn my stomach. The food seemed to put him in better spirits, and he listened contentedly as Sashi and I made harmless small talk about the resorts in Vegas.

When we were almost to Longmont, not far from the Pellar farm, I pulled over so Sashi could try again. She repeated the procedure, resting her hands on Tobias’s wrist. She closed her eyes, concentrating hard, and this time Tobias’s eyes went blank and distant, like he was listening to a song only he could hear. This went on for a while. I’d turned on the car’s interior lights, and I watched in fascination as he suddenly squeezed his eyes shut too. When he opened them, tears ran down his cheeks, into his cheap sweatshirt. “Oh,” he whispered. “Oh.” Sashi opened her eyes and released his arm, and the werewolf popped open his door, bolting into the night.

Sashi and I exchanged a look, and both of us reached for our door handles. Only I grabbed the gun first. I had no idea what to expect, and although I trusted Sam, I couldn’t exactly predict the behavior of a werewolf who had been nuts ten minutes ago.

He hadn’t moved across the headlights, so both Sashi and I ran around the back of the car. “Tobias!” I yelled, scared that he’d taken off running. But then I made out a figure, illuminated red from my taillights: the werewolf was on his knees a dozen feet away from the car, digging his fingers into the ground and taking huge, ragged breaths. I held back, holding the revolver in both hands, but Sashi went right over and kneeled beside him, touching his shoulder with one hand. “Tobias, are you okay?” she asked. I quietly took a few steps to the right so she wasn’t in my line of fire. Just in case.

“You did that?” he asked, meeting her eyes. “You untangled the knots?”

Sashi nodded, and the werewolf abruptly lunged toward her. I had the weapon pointed at him before I realized that he was hugging her, not attacking. He lifted her to her feet and swung her around in a circle, effortlessly. “Thank you, thank you,” he cried. “It’s like I just woke up after years of sleepwalking. I . . . oh, God, I can’t believe it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

He set her down, still hugging her tight, his face glowing with gratitude. I saw Sashi pat his back, her eyes uncertain. She looked exhausted. A few tears had run down her cheeks too, and I realized that my own eyes had filled.

I didn’t want to intrude on his moment of peace, but we were running out of time. “Tobias,” I began. “I’m sorry, but we’re short on time. I don’t know if you remember my question, but I need your help finding the other werewolves, the ones who used to be in your pack. Do you remember their names any better now?”

He nodded, his face tilted up toward me. “But if you want, we can just go see them.”

I winced. Maven was going to call me any minute to demand an update. “I’m not sure we’ve got enough time to drive back to Wyoming,” I told him.

He tilted his head in confusion. “We don’t have to,” he said. “I can
smell them. They’re just a few miles that way.” He raised his arm,
one
index finger extended to point southwest.

Right toward Boulder.