Call of the Raven (11 page)

Thousand Lies

The wolf ran
with the back part of his
feet raised up off the ground. This manner of movement allowed him
to run faster—stealth like. With his strong muscles and long legs
he could run for hours without getting tired. Slowing down to a
lope he began frantically searching for the scent in the snow and
air. Smell being his strongest sense, he soon picked it up once
again and quickly resumed his prior speed.

They had taken Ari by snowmobile leaving
Brokenridge behind to travel through the dense trees of Yellowwood
National Forrest. The towering pines with their snow laden boughs
reminded him of a scene from a Christmas card, so serene and
picturesque that he briefly forgot his purpose for being in the
woods.

Fur as black as night, orange eyes glaring,
Asher moved swiftly. Neither the cold, nor the foot of snow
hindered him. He climbed higher, leaping over snowdrifts and fallen
trees until he was successfully standing on top of a large hill,
panting out puffs of white mist. Under the glow of the crescent
moon he saw a cabin hidden among the trees in the hollow below,
black smoke bellowing from its chimney.

Parked outside were six snowmobiles and a
four-wheel drive with a winch on the front. He guessed that was how
they tricked Ari by pretending to be good Samaritans. That would be
just like his brother to be so trusting. Asher tilted his head
upward and howled, and then pricking his ears he rotated them from
left to right, like a satellite dish. Alert and quiet he waited
until faintly he heard it, the sound of Ari’s dog-form howling
back. He was all right, just a little tired and cold.

Asher closed his eyes and allowed the relief
to momentarily wash over him. He tried desperately not to cry.
Seldom did he allow such emotions to surface, but this time it was
different. Ever since accepting the bond again, Asher was highly
aware of his brother’s spirit and the sadness within Ari was
overwhelming. Another howl penetrated Asher’s consciousness leaving
behind tiny mental goose bumps. This howl had not been sent by
Ari.

Crouching down out of sight, Asher began
scanning the area around the cabin until just beyond, near a large
pine, he spotted a single wolf. Once again the grey howled, in all
things a warning. Since the wolf apparently knew he was there,
Asher stood and sniffed the wind. He picked up nothing, no sign
that the wolf was real.

The screeching of a falcon sounded overhead
and Asher cursed. The tiger and the rodent brats weren’t too far
off. He commended them at least for catching up. When he looked
again the wolf was gone.

Shifting back into a man, a sudden wind
caught Asher off guard and whipped his hair madly about his face.
Even in his fur lined parka, the wind was frigid. He quickly pulled
up the hood drawing the string tight around his neck, and taking
fingerless leather gloves from his pocket, he slowly pulled them
on. He noticed tracks of his wolf form leading up to where he stood
and bitterness welled inside of him.

For ten years he had resisted the urge to
shift, as his powers only proceeded to grow stronger. Now thanks to
a bunch of outcasts, the persuasion to change would be even greater
for him in the future, especially during the next full moon. And
this night, Asher knew that he would need every ounce of his
magic—magic that was decreased in the transformation process. Nixon
descended from the sky and changed back before his feet could
successfully touch the ground. Landing on his knees, he quickly got
up and hurried toward him.

“They probably know we’re here now,” Asher
said in a low voice as he approached.

“You think?” Nixon shivered pulling his
leather coat together with his bare hands. It seemed so like him to
wear such a garment of vanity despite the cold. “I figured with you
and Ari’s howling session they already figured that out.”

Asher snarled, “I needed to communicate with
him.”

“They must not care if he’s in dog form
then.”

“Obviously not,” Asher answered
sarcastically. “Hopefully, they didn’t pick up
your
screeching.”

“I don’t believe it’s the fowlers, we should
be concerned about.” Nixon said.

Asher sensed tension in his voice, so he
arched his brow, and urged Nixon to speak his mind.

“About two miles back on the service lane,”
Nixon told him, “I saw a whole herd of parked snowmobiles. I took
roost in a tree and since I was waiting on Kennedy to catch up, I
decided to watch the road. Sure enough a truckload of people showed
up. I’d say two, maybe three to a snowmobile.”

Asher could hear them now approaching through
the trees. He had been so adamant in his anger for having to shift
he had failed to consider a backup plan just in case the old man
did betray him. Jaw tightening, Asher’s only thought was he hoped
they killed the old man in the process, for he surely would
now.

Sounds in the trees alerted him that someone
was nearing. Asher instinctively started to take cover until he
realized it wasn’t the snowmobiles yet, but instead it was Kennedy
in tiger form. Seeing them, she came to an abrupt stop and shook
the rats from her back.

They shifted simultaneously and headed for
them. The twins stayed back a few steps, taking shelter behind
Kennedy for protection. Asher had made a promise to her not to
punish the boy since he had come out of hiding long enough to aid
in Ari’s rescue, and he planned to hold true to that agreement, for
now.

“How far back are they?” Asher barked in a
cloud of white mist.

“Seven minute’s maybe, but they’re staying
close to the road,” Kennedy said. “I counted ten snowmobiles and
seventeen shifters in human-form. Two are women.”

Asher nodded, contemplating the information
as Kennedy gathered the twins at her sides to keep warm. Their
coats appeared to be too small, buttons straining at the top, and
left open entirely at the bottom. They wore no gloves or hats on
their heads. Their pale faces were red. Cade’s lips were turning
purple and Casin, still ashamed over the whole peeing incident,
averted her face entirely. In her barefaced stare, Kennedy’s anger
was apparent. It circled her body in a heated wave. She saw no
reason for him to have involved the twins.

“Shift back, follow the plan,” Asher told
them.

“What about your magic, Asher?” Nixon
asked.

“I still have plenty left,” he replied.
“Don’t worry about me. Just do as I said.” Asher started to close
his eyes to concentrate, when he caught Kennedy’s frown of
disapproval. Taking a giant step, he got up close and personal, his
face just inches from hers. “If you doubt in the least you will be
the only one putting the twins in danger. Is that understood?”

She nodded quickly, submissively, so he
stepped back and shifted into wolf form. When they still refused to
move, he barked a warning which distressed the twins into an
instant transformation as two small dark lumps dropped to the
ground. The boy was a black rat, the girl a brown rat but all he
could make out was two pink noses sticking up out of the snow.

“I will for Ari, no one else,” Kennedy stated
angrily. Transforming into the tiger, she lied down on her stomach
in the snow to allow the twins to climb on her back. Soon they were
lost in the thick coat of orange fur.

With the sound of the snowmobiles fast
approaching Asher descended down the hill with the tiger quickly
behind him. After a scan of the skies, he saw Nixon circling above
the wind, where the fowlers inside would have less of a chance to
pick up his scent. He was where he was supposed to be so Asher
centered his attention on the cabin.

He could only imagine the wicked scheming
that was going on inside. It took every ounce of his control not to
blast it into a fiery inferno. Ari was inside and he had to get him
out before he could take care of the enemy.

Near the edge of the trees, Asher dropped
down in the snow to wait and watch. The tiger crept silently around
to the side of the cabin. She chose a spot next to a woodpile and
lied down. Scurrying off her back the two rats disappeared behind
the wood only to reemerge once again along the base of the
structure. The boy was good at finding his way into secured places.
And if he couldn’t find a way in, then he would make one by gnawing
through the wood with his incisors. The girl would be his
lookout.

Several more snowmobiles arrived sending out
large clouds of snow as they skidded to a stop, parking randomly in
no apparent order. Asher spared enough magic to encircle his wolf
body. That way he would be protected from the men spotting him and
the weather as well. He needed his muscles limber if fighting was
required. He hoped fighting would be required.

His eyes scanned over the dismounting men and
two women looking for signs of confidence or power which to him
would indicate leadership. And then he noticed him, a wide
shouldered man wearing an ankle length leather coat with the hood
pulled up over his head. He climbed off his snowmobile, stretched,
yawned loudly, and pushed people out of his way as he walked.

Asher remembered the wide frame, the arrogant
swagger to his stride, the power he tried to instill to those he
felt insignificant. The man was his father—the one responsible for
his birth, and his name was Zareth Ross. The same DNA flowed
through his veins and yet he felt nothing. Asher had never truly
known him, only of him, until the day he showed up at the
healers.

His eyes lifted to the bird circling above
the cabin. He was supposed to take position next to the chimney
stack where the smoke escaping onto the night air would cover his
scent. He was supposed to keep watch but instead, the falcon veered
in the opposite direction and headed for a large pine. Ross headed
for the cabin door while the others hung back in intimidation like
cowering puppies under the authority of a dominant litter mate.
Hind quarters up, head lowered, Asher began creeping quietly
forward.

He, on the other hand was far from being
afraid.

***

Ari’s dog ears
pricked up as he
listened to a phone conversation between the lead fowler and an
unknown individual. After several minutes he soon realized the hold
up. The fowlers were waiting for someone to arrive.

He had assumed that they had abducted him
with the purpose of drawing Asher away from the sanctity of the
manor, but the more Ari listened, the more he became convinced that
something else was about to go down. And if that were true, Asher
was out there with the others, and Ari feared for them.

Tuning in to a new sound, Ari knew this one
well. Just a week prior he had woken in the middle of the night to
the same grinding noise to realize that the twins, after being
banished to their rooms by Asher, were tunneling through the wall
in effort to reach him. The twins had never liked thunderstorms
much.

Looking high and low, Ari sought them out. He
spotted Cade’s pink nose peeking out from behind a wood box and was
both shocked and angry to see him. There was no grating, nothing
but black ash on the brick floor, and it was there that he
eventually spotted Casin. With her big brown eyes intensely
focused, she appeared to be watching the men in the other room. Ari
knew it wouldn’t take long for the fowlers to catch the twin’s
scent, since they were natural prey to most birds. Shifting, Ari
tugged at the rope around his neck but to no avail.

Soon they would see that he was back in man
form and would come to bind his hands again. He had to work fast.
One behind the other, the rats raced across the room leaving tiny
black sooty paw prints behind on the wood floor. Ari rubbed them
away with his leg the best he could. Reaching down he stroked
Cade’s back first, and then his sister’s. He saw both concern and
fear in their eyes, especially Casin as she nuzzled against his
hand.

“I’m all right,” he mouthed. “I’ll take care
of you.” Hearing the arrival of the snowmobiles Ari leaned over so
Cade could climb up his arm and chew the rope around his neck. The
knot was far too tight for Ari to manage with his cold numb
fingers. While Cade chewed, Casin took cover between his back and
the wall, playing lookout. She was good at this, covering for her
mischief making brother.

Ari felt the rope loosen considerably, but
the voices outside were drawing nearer. He couldn’t risk them being
caught. “Get out of here. Go now before they catch you,” he
instructed the rats.

Chattering to his sister Cade jumped off
Ari’s shoulder and darted across the room. Casin tried but the door
unexpectedly flung open and it slammed into the opposite wall,
startling her back into her hiding place. Ari scooted back even
further, sandwiching her small warm body against his lower back and
the wall.

A man whose width easily spanned the doorway
stepped inside the cabin. Through the folds of a scarf draped
around his face, his dark gaze fell on Ari. He recognized those
eyes, those menacing, hostile eyes. Removing the hood, the man
started unwinding the scarf, and Ari placed those eyes with a face
quickly enough.

“My God,” Ari uttered, “Zareth Ross.”

“Ari, Ari Lake,” Ross smiled wide. “Glad you
remember.” Removing a glove, Ross crossed the room in three easy
strides and extended a hand in a mocked gesture of friendship. Ari
noticed dirt under his nails and caught the faint hint of grease,
as he gingerly repaid the gesture.

“Zareth,” Ari answered. “I guess I owe you
for this charade. You might as well give up. Asher won’t come here
for me.”

“Aah Asher, “Ross grinned, “all heart that
young man is.”

Ari pressed his biceps against the wall to
further add protection to little Casin. The poker game had come to
an abrupt end with Ross’s arrival, and the fowlers were moving
around now setting up metal chairs before the podium. Behind Ross
several others began to file into the room.