Silver Moon (A Women of Wolf's Point Novel) (30 page)

She missed the moment when Erin pointed the knife at the barrier and pushed forward with everything she had. They lurched forward and Becca nearly fell out of the pattern. She caught herself in time and looked over Erin’s shoulder to see what was coming up next, but couldn’t see anything except the design. They walked around the outermost part of the pattern slowly, but without incident.

Then at the second ring, there was a flash of light and Erin stumbled badly, landing on her knees in one of the pattern’s twists. Shelly bent over her, holding her shoulders and steadying her from falling over the lines. Erin swayed and Becca nearly jumped forward to hold her; only Shelly’s warning look held her back.

“I might have known that I’d find you here. Interesting little confab you’ve got going on.” They all jumped as Oya’s voice boomed from the cave opening. “Give me your gun, little groupie, or Cousin Shelly bites the dust,” The gun trembled slightly in her hands but there was no way she could miss any of them at that range.

Lizzie cursed softly and looked like she’d like to tackle the Nester but her hands were full of the drums. Slowly, she reached up and unsnapped her holster. “What do you think you’re going to do, Sara? Shoot us all and try and get out of the county alive? You know you won’t make it.”

Becca shuddered, hoping that Oya wouldn’t take Lizzie up on the suggestion. She wondered what kind of bullets the gun would fire; did they have to be silver if they were all in human form? Would it hurt if they were? They said silver was pretty soft. She could feel Shelly tensing under her hands, clearly planning to try something. Erin was getting slowly and carefully to her feet, her boots scuffing the pattern a little but not blurring it too much.

Oya stepped closer and picked up the gun that Lizzie pushed toward her. She tucked it into her belt but kept her own gun trained on Shelly. Wherever she’d been since Becca saw her last hadn’t been kind to her. There were big circles under her eyes, twigs in her unwashed hair and leaves all over her jean jacket. A cut on one hand was still bleeding and Becca could smell it from across the cave. It made her want to bite Oya more than usual.

Judging from the expression on Shelly’s face, the feeling must be nearly universal. “So what do you want to do now, Sara? You’re here by yourself so I’m guessing you lost your buddies along the way.”

The Nester leader’s breath hissed out between her teeth. “I’m Oya now. She who brings change. You will honor my warrior name by using it. Sara,” she paused and nearly spat the word out, “was someone who wanted to be one of you. She’s dead now.”

“Sara was our grandmother’s name. And you still are one of us, somewhere under all the crap they’ve been pumping into you.” Shelly stepped forward and Becca winced. The expression on Oya’s face hardened.

Becca could feel Erin start to move, as if she was thinking about lunging forward. A horrible vision of Erin being shot again flashed through her mind and she nearly grabbed Erin’s arm. But that would just draw Oya’s attention. Becca didn’t want to look down the barrel of that gun again. Well, any gun, truthfully. But here they were, stuck in the middle of this ritual while Oya seemed to be waiting for something. That was the only reason that Becca could think of that made her hold her fire.

She wondered what the woman was waiting for, then she remembered Anderson. If Oya was waiting on anything, it was probably him. When he showed up, he’d no doubt have a few more Nesters with him.

With that, came the realization that the moon was riding the sky over the cave, calling to her wolf self. She could feel herself responding to it. It was distracting, almost like two different people were trying to pull her in different directions. They needed to finish this now.

She closed her eyes for a moment and missed Shelly changing and Lizzie lunging for the gun. There was a shot and Erin knocked her to the floor, the impact knocking the breath out of her. She looked up to find Shelly charging Oya in wolf form, blood leaking from a hole in her ribs.

Lizzie hit the Nester from the other side as she fired again. This time the shot threw sand up in their faces as it hit the pattern, then ricocheted. The pattern. Becca glanced down at the sand rapidly getting rolled into an unidentifiable mass underneath them. Then she lurched to her feet and pulled Erin up with her. “Keep moving through it! If Shelly can catch up, she will, but we’ve got to finish this.”

Erin looked at Shelly and Lizzie and Oya struggling near the entrance. Shelly fell back with a yelp as Oya hit her wounded side. Erin stepped forward with a growl, colliding with Becca as she blocked her progress. “If you want to help, keep moving. We’ve got to finish this. I can’t do it on my own—I’m not alpha.”

Another shot rang out and they both ducked. Becca gently shoved Erin forward, moving her past the part of the pattern that they had destroyed when they rolled on it. Part of the third loop in, and all of the smaller rings going into the center were still intact though. Erin stepped forward and it was as if walls surrounded them on both sides. Becca felt like she could reach out and touch them. She wondered if they were bullet-proof. She hoped they didn’t have to find out.

There was another wolflike yelp followed by a very human voice cursing from the entrance. Becca tried to move Erin along faster but it was as if the magic was slowing them down deliberately. Every step was an effort, every breath like lifting a heavy weight. The moon outside felt muted and Becca could feel the wolf inside her slide gradually into sleep. Or at least dormancy.

She could still feel the magic running through her like a current. Erin kept stepping forward, moving as if she was facing into a strong wind, with Becca’s hands on her shoulders serving as anchor and link. Becca could feel the pressure too; she tried to keep her head down and her focus on where her feet were moving. It seemed to help a little.

Or at least it did until Shelly skidded across the floor, still in wolf form, and crashed into them. Becca went to her knees while Erin stumbled and swayed. Lizzie yelled something that might have been a warning and there was a giant flash, like a flame in the center of the pattern. Becca glanced toward the cave entrance and saw Anderson and several of the other Nesters coming up the path. “Run for the center!” Erin yelled pulling Becca up and steadying Shelly as she scrambled up on all fours.

And they did. It was like running up a mountain in the snow. Shelly was changing back as she ran when Becca looked back. Anderson had a rifle in his hands, aiming at them all. There were two Nesters holding Lizzie against the wall and Oya was standing now, blood running down her chin. “Look out!” Becca yelled, ducking as much as she could while still moving.

Something whizzed past her. Erin gave a groan and staggered and Becca caught her, “Erin, no!” Her foot slipped and she was horrified to see blood beginning to obscure the pattern.
Not again.

Shelly grabbed her shoulders with newly human hands. “Keep her going. We’re almost there.” She pointed forward: they had the last and shortest loop in front of them. Then the center and whatever happened next.

Becca strained to lift Erin. Anderson and his men were still firing. Unless they kept moving, they were all dead. She reached down deep inside herself and heaved Erin through the last few steps. She felt a sharp pain as something hit her shoulder hard. It burned with a white-hot agony, but the three of them kept staggering forward. The cave spun around Becca now, the torchlight dimming.
This is it, then,
she thought, taking a ragged breath.

Shelly growled softly in her ear. “We are not dying here or now. Move!” The word was like a verbal shove, the full weight of an alpha command behind it. Something in Becca responded and even Erin seemed to rouse herself and scrambled the last few steps.

The center of the pattern was nearly all that remained; the rest of it was obscured with blood or wiped out by their efforts to get through it. Erin went limp and Becca placed her gently down. Then, on impulse, she reached out and grabbed Erin’s hand, holding it as she stood up. Shelly gave her a quick look before Becca took her hand as well.

“Now, howl as loud as you can. Turn the wolf inside loose. We’re out of time,” Shelly’s voice was distant, as if it was coming from much farther away than the tiny semicircle they now formed.

Sure, easy for you to say,
Becca thought. She squinted out into the cave and tried to see if Lizzie was okay. Then Shelly howled and the human thoughts began to dribble out of her mind. She threw back her head and howled with her alpha. The sound seemed to rouse Erin as well, and with a weak croak, she joined them.

The current that Becca had felt in the pattern came to life, crackling around them like a force field. Shelly said something that Becca didn’t quite catch, and then there was a moment where everything was completely still: Nesters, wolves, Lizzie, even the magic.

Then it exploded back to life. Shelly’s head arched back and she braced her feet far apart. For a moment, a wolf’s head flickered around her like old film, at least to Becca’s eyes. Then it hit her too and she staggered, held upright by Shelly’s support. It was like being on fire or like changing partway and being suspended between wolf and woman. Erin’s hand twitched in hers as the power, whatever it was, tossed her from the floor to stand unsteadily next to them.

The cave was glowing now and it seemed to Becca that all the paintings were in motion, racing around the walls as fast as they could go. At first, they stayed on the walls, circling the cave and disappearing at one side of the entrance, reappearing on the other. They began moving faster and faster until finally the first one leapt free, followed by another. A surge of painted wolf-women in various stages of transformation moved toward the Nesters at the entrance.

One man broke and ran, but Anderson and Oya and one or two others held their ground and fired their guns. Then the paintings struck back. Becca could barely see what was happening now. The cave was full of smoke and shots being fired and the cave’s magic was controlling her movements. She could feel the urge to change move from Shelly to take over her own body and she screamed in agony. It felt like the Nesters’ cure was getting burned out of her veins.

It twisted its way through her for a few moments, then the pain vanished to be replaced with a full change and she dropped to all fours. Shelly was human now, she noticed as she glanced at her alpha, so that just left Erin. The magic seemed to strike at Erin just as Becca thought she would be next and Erin yowled as it ran through her. The Nester’s bullets broke free of all of them and dropped to the floor.

Then, with a howl like Becca had never heard before, Erin dropped to her knees, then scrambled as they turned into paws. For a horrible moment, her face was human while her body changed as if the magic had forgotten a part of her. Becca closed her eyes for a moment and prayed to any deity that might be listening that the legend wasn’t going to come true.

A scream near the entrance made her jerk her eyes open and her head around. Anderson had fallen under the weight of the paintings, but Oya…Oya was still standing and surrounded by them. They were circling her like they’d done on the walls before they got free. Becca couldn’t help but think that they looked like paper dolls at the same time that her wolf nose was telling her that they were Pack.

Apparently, they looked a lot scarier up close. Oya had her face in her hands. One of the wolf-women, the one Kira had painted of Shelly, reached out and touched her head. Oya glowed for a moment, then she changed. Two of the paintings circled and blocked Becca’s view. Then she was preoccupied with her own change as she was wrenched back to human.

A quick glance at Erin showed her that her friend was human once more, though still covered in blood and clearly in pain. She looked at Shelly too, just to make sure. The alpha was standing with her arms, not paws, stretched above her head, like she was giving thanks for something or calling on a power that Becca couldn’t see.

Whatever that power was, it seemed to move in a wave from the three of them and the pattern toward the cave entrance and the painted women. Becca could see Anderson lying very limp and still but that was nothing compared to what happened when the paintings stopped circling Oya.

She had changed. Her eyes were still human above her fur-covered muzzle and she didn’t have full wolf form yet. Instead, she swayed on her huge hind legs with forearms that were part claw, part hand. It was like something out of a bad horror movie.

She looked down, then back up at Shelly. She tried to say something but all that emerged from her muzzle was a snarling growl, followed by a doglike bark. At that moment, Becca almost felt sorry for her. Oya, still growling, broke through the circle of paintings and vanished outside. Becca could hear her crashing through the underbrush, running away from the cave and Wolf’s Point.

Shelly sang a word, then two, in that language that Becca didn’t understand and the paintings began to circle once more. The circle got wider and wider this time until each painting merged back with the cave wall. A moment later, they were all back on the walls and perfectly still, as if nothing had happened.

Erin passed out, her body collapsing limply against Becca’s shoulder. Lizzie stood up slowly. “Holy shit, coz. That was…amazing.” She ran a hand through sweat-soaked hair. Her sunglasses seemed to be missing. “Oh crap. Erin. She’s still breathing, isn’t she?”

Becca nodded. Her heart raced frantically as she checked Erin’s pulse. But the wound in her shoulder still gushed blood and the sight filled Becca with terror. Lizzie began to cross the pattern but it was Shelly who reached down and touched Erin’s shoulder. There was a spark and a smell like burning herbs and the blood slowed, then stopped.

Erin’s breathing grew less frantic and Becca grinned up at Shelly. Shelly grinned back though she looked drawn and exhausted. Together they maneuvered the barely conscious Erin to her feet and moved her out of the remains of the pattern.

A sound outside made everyone except Erin flinch and look up. Lizzie dove for one of the Nester guns and spun around to face the entrance as Molly, Mrs. Hui, Gladys and the rest of the Pack scrambled up the path. “Dammit.” Molly’s voice echoed a little in the cave. “I told you we were going to miss all the fun.”