Isabel and the Wolf: (Part 4) (8 page)

When the call ended, Isabel lay back on the bed and her body went limp with relief. She thought how heavily she’d been depending on Kara for the past few weeks, and was overwhelmed with gratitude and guilt in equal measures.

During the night, Isabel was hit by a headache so piercing that she could barely get out of bed the next day, let alone pick Kara up from the airport. The chink of light coming from between her curtains was like an icepick in her brain. She kept the house as dark as possible, and only staggered out to get a glass of water from time to time.

“How did you get here?” Isabel asked, opening her door to Kara early in the evening.

“It was fine! I got chatting to a sweet old couple on the flight, and they were going to Las Cruces, and they dropped me off on the way!”

“That’s so lucky!” Isabel said. “I was worried you’d have to take the Greyhound.”

“Me too!” Kara rolled her eyes. “You sound really croaky.” She followed Isabel back to her bedroom and put her hand on her forehead. “You feel a little hot too.”

“That’s because my brain’s been exploding all day!”

“Migraines are the worst, huh?”

“It’s actually only the third one I’ve ever had. And all three have been after some emotional drama.”

“Oh yeah – I remember the one when you and Jason – ”

“Exactly.” Kara was referring to the night when Isabel told her long-term boyfriend – surprising even herself – that she didn’t want to be with him anymore. Hours later, she’d been hit by a snow-blind headache so intense that she’d had to stay in bed for three days.

“And the other one?”

“When I had a miscarriage, without even knowing I was pregnant.”

“Oh, sorry.” Kara rubbed her nose. “I guess discovering that a couple of men you’ve been intimate with are actually werewolves could be classed as an extreme emotional event.”

“Yup.” Isabel turned her head with difficulty and looked at Kara. “Thank you so much for coming here so quickly. I feel like you’re the older sister I never had.”

“Except better, because I didn’t ruin your childhood by dropping caterpillars into
your ears and hiding fake poop in your bed!”

“You used to do that to your brothers?”

“Well, maybe.” Kara rested her hand lightly on the top of Isabel’s head. “But, seriously, how many breakups and heartaches have you nursed me through?

“I guess there’s been a couple.”

“Exactly.”

“What am I going to do about living here, in Silver City?” Isabel asked, with a burst of anxiety.

“Let’s discuss that when you’re feeling better, little one.”

Kara ordered pizza and then she watched a movie while Isabel dozed, waking up to chat here and there. They both fell asleep on the bed, waking late the next day.

Isabel’s headache hung around until the afternoon, but she and Kara used the quiet day to work out a plan. They would stay at Isabel’s place for a couple of weeks at least, to give her time to process her feelings, and, if she wanted to leave after that, they could move to Las Cruces until Kara had finished her excavation.

“I think I want to go for a walk,” Isabel said, at around 4pm.

“Out in nature, or in the town?”

“In the town, I think.”

They left Isabel’s car in the parking lot behind Buffalo Bar, and wandered down the main street. The sky was pale blue, almost white, as the sun slid down low, edging towards the distant hills.

“Is it me, or has something changed here?” Kara said.

“I was thinking the same thing, but I dismissed it as paranoia.”

“I feel like people are looking at me funny.”

“Me too.” As they slowed to look in a shop window, a woman stopped in front of them. She was wearing a shapeless brown dress, and her long gray hair was loosely tied. She had a pale face, with large hazel eyes, and she could have been anywhere from late twenties to mid-forties.

“Where are you girls from?” she asked them. Isabel frowned at the sharpness in her tone.

“I’m just down here for a couple of months,” Kara said immediately, in her typical friendly way.

“Is that so?” the woman said. “And what brings you here?”

“I’m an archaeologist. I’ll be working on some Aztec ruins, about an hour from here.” The woman nodded, satisfied.

“And you, young lady?”

“I’m an artist. I moved here a couple of months ago. I’m friends with Marianna and Bill. I don’t know if you know them?”

“Oh yes, of course. I know them very well. They’re good friends of mine.” With that, the woman nodded to each of them and carried on her way.

“She’s a werewolf!” Isabel hissed to Kara.

“What’s it to you if I am, child?” the woman called from further down the street. Isabel and Kara gasped and their heads snapped around to look at the woman, but she kept walking away from them. They stared at each other.

“How the hell did she hear that?”

“
Because
she’s a werewolf,” Isabel whispered, right in Kara’s ear.

“But how could you tell?”

“From her eyes. From the way she was walking. Kara, I can
see
them now!” Isabel looked around at the people on the street. “Their strong bodies, their light, powerful gait. They kind of prowl, instead of walking. They’re, like, popping out at me!”

“Where?”

“Everywhere! That guy in front, just to the right, with the yellow sweater on. That girl opposite, in the pink dress.”

“How come you can only just see them now?”

“I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t looking.” Kara shivered.

“This is so creepy. But in a kind of cool way. I want to see them too. That guy standing by the window is one, right? He looks pretty buff.”

“Nope. He’s just buff. He doesn’t have that weird light in his eyes.

“Maybe you weren’t capable of seeing it until you’d done the business with Peter
and
Jed?”

“Yeah, perhaps. I mean I saw something different about Peter straightaway.”

“Uh, it’d be pretty hard not to. But you said there was something about Jed too?”

“True. But I could only see it when he, you know, obviously desired me. It’s like sex really brings it out of them. I guess that’s why Josie’s such a sex beast. She came over to my place once and she was really out of control, and Rob said she gets like that every month.”

“Was there a full moon at that point, by any chance?”

“Yes, actually.” Isabel stopped dead in the street. “There was. Something weird happened to me after Josie and Rob left. I woke in the middle of the night and had this uncontrollable urge to go outside and stare at the moon. It was huge and round, and I remember feeling like it was calling to me. I know that sounds really bizarre. It’s also the second time that’s happened since I met Peter.”

“Wow,” Kara breathed. “It’s like you’re being drawn into this werewolf energy. What if you turned into a werewolf too?”

“Stop it!” Isabel said, and her stomach knotted in panic. “But what if that’s possible? I’m calling Marianna.” She pulled her phone out of her purse and dialed. After a couple of rings, Marianna’s soothing voice said hello.

“No, of course it’s not possible,” she said, chuckling. “If it was, we’d all be werewolves too! Stop worrying, honey, please. Having our first sexual experiences with werewolves didn’t do me and my friends any damage at all – apart from setting our standards pretty high!”

“Maybe I should get myself one of those,” Kara said, after Isabel had finished with the call.

“What?”

“I’ve always said,
try anything once. Apart from incest and morris dancing!”

“Well, I’ve always suspected that a mere man could never match up to your expectations!” Isabel said, and laughed for the first time in a while.

The sky had turned from white to pink to violet, and it seemed to Isabel that there were more werewolves on the street than ever, and that people pressed closer, turning to examine the girls’ faces, muttering to each other. Some were werewolves, others were just humans. Isabel felt uneasy, and, from Kara’s expression, she had the same feeling.

“I vote we get out of here,” Isabel said.

“Agreed,” Kara replied, and they turned back for home.

*

For days, Peter and Jed were mercifully silent. Isabel missed them both, at different times, depending on her mood. But she still couldn’t cope with the thought of seeing either of them yet. She and Kara stayed holed up at home, only going out to buy food. A couple of times, they braved Silver City’s main street for a coffee, and Isabel was shocked at how changed the little town was. Gossip about the ‘giant wolves’ had swollen the population to about three times its usual number. SUVs lined the road, and the sidewalk was full of people wearing outdoor, and even camouflage gear, casting their eyes around greedily. It had the artificial feel of a tourist town, but Isabel was glad to observe that none of the locals were capitalizing on it. There was no ‘giant wolf’ merchandise anywhere that she could see.

Several times a day, she scoured the local news for anything to do with wolves, and the national news for anything to do with Silver City, but the blackout stayed in place. She wondered how long before someone broke the silence, and Silver City became the busiest and tackiest attraction since Las Vegas. And then something happened.

There was some breaking news. Two local police officers had been injured. That was all. A grinning, airbrushed newsreader said to stand by for updates. Isabel’s pulse pounded in her throat and she swallowed hard.
Was one of them Jed?
No, there were lots of police officers in the area; it could be any of them. Don’t panic!

She sat on her sofa, hugging a cushion, her knees drawn up, and watching the same useless update again and again.
What was the point of delivering breaking news with no actual information?
She wished Kara was around to calm her down, but she’d just started working at the archaeological site. At last, there was something new:
The men are not critically hurt. Initial reports indicate that they were shot by an unidentified attacker in Gila Wilderness. They have been taken to a local hospital and are reported to be in a stable condition.

Isabel picked up her phone and dialed Jed’s number. It rang and rang, and went to voicemail. She cut the call and threw the phone to the corner of the sofa.

“Shit!” she yelled to the empty room. She found the number of the police station at Black Peak City, retrieved her phone and called it.

“I’m afraid we can’t give out names, ma’am,” a tense male voice said.

“Can you just tell me if Jed is one of them?”

“Are you a family member, ma’am?”

“No,” she said, but she had all she needed to know. She picked up her car keys and raced out of the house.

As Isabel drove down the road, she realized she had no idea where the hospital was. She flagged down a pedestrian who scowled at her with suspicion, before giving her directions. Moments later, she burst into the lobby of the small local hospital.

“I’m here to see Jed Roberts,” she said, recalling his last name with difficulty.

“Are you a relative of Officer Roberts?” the receptionist asked her. Isabel’s chest flooded with adrenaline at the confirmation that he was there.

“Yes, I’m his sister.”

“Do you have any ID?”

“No, I only just heard what happened, so I rushed down here without my pocketbook. Which room is he in?”

“I’m afraid without ID I can’t tell you – ” The woman’s eyes slid to the left, and Isabel started running in that same direction, ignoring the voice calling after her. She passed four doors, before she saw him through a glass panel in a door. He was sitting up in bed. His arm was bandaged from shoulder to forearm, and his muscular, olive-toned chest was bare. She hurried into the room.

“Jed!”

“Isabel!” he called back, grinning at her.

“Oh my god, as soon as I saw the news, I just knew it was you! What happened?” she said, breathlessly. As she ran to his bed, she saw that he wasn’t alone in the room. There was a large, dark figure sitting at the side of the bed.

“Peter! What the hell? Did you shoot him?” Jed broke into laughter.

“Isabel, calm down! I’m ok, and Peter didn’t shoot me.” The door opened and the receptionist’s head popped through. “It’s fine,” Jed told her, giving her a thumbs up. Isabel walked around to the other side of the bed and sat on an empty seat.

“What happened?”

“My colleague and I apprehended a guy in Gila who was about to shoot Peter. Unfortunately, this nut job turned the gun on us instead. I got off pretty lightly, with two shotgun bullets in my upper arm, but John wasn’t so lucky and he’s just coming out of surgery now. They had to dig a bullet out of his abdomen.”

“Oh, god. This is terrible,” Isabel exclaimed. “And were you, um, in your wolf form at that point?” Peter nodded.

“Jed saved my life,” he said quietly. Jed gave a wry smile.

“Folks are going crazy at the moment. I’ve never seen anything like it. And all these gun-toting psychopaths are coming out of the woodwork on a hunting spree.”

“It’s so lucky you were there,” Isabel said with feeling. She stood up and put an arm around Jed’s left shoulder, then she went around the bed and wrapped her arms around Peter. She hugged him fiercely, enough for both him and Jed. Then she sat down again.

“Does it hurt?” she asked Jed.

“Not since I’ve been given enough morphine to knock out an elephant. They had to pull ’em out and stitch me up again, so it’ll be a little while before I’m back to normal.”

“How long before you get out?”

“They want to keep me in tonight, so they can monitor the pain relief, but I should be out tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll drive you home,” she said.

“I’ve already offered,” Peter said, a touch of hurt in his voice. She’d offended him by assuming that he wouldn’t have.

“Of course,” she said quickly. Jed would need help at home for the first few days, that was obvious. But she wouldn’t ask now, for fear of putting her foot in it again. “I’ll come and see you when you’re settled in?” she said instead.

“That would be great,” Jed said, with his lazy, sexy smile. Peter caught her eye and gave her a kind look, free from any jealousy. Isabel was suddenly overcome with emotion. She stood up.