Walking Wolf Road (Wolf Road Chronicles Book 1) (11 page)

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. What kind of person spouts their own hate in God’s name?

“Dad, please—stop!” Jack sputtered as his dad pressed his face into the lockers, turning Jack’s wide panicked eyes toward me until I could clearly see the black eye Mr. Spritari had mentioned. Even just a few feet away, Jack didn’t notice me.

They can’t see me! How can they not see me?

“God only favors the strong, but you’re not strong, Jack. Your weakness shames my name. You’ve failed me, and you’ve failed God.” Jack’s father continued his tirade in a low venomous voice, “How could you let some little queer like that get the upper hand?”

“I’m—sorry…” Jack squeezed out.

“Damn right you’re sorry; a sorry sack of shit! That faggot is nothing! Nothing! Just like you! You’re not strong enough to do what God wants you to do; you’ll never be strong enough!” Jack’s dad spit into his face, and then shoved him to the floor right in front of me. Jack lay there, still, as his father marched away with the parting comment, “You’re not good enough to be my son.”

Neither Jack nor I moved for several minutes, both of us shaking. My own cowardice and powerlessness sickened me almost as much as what I’d just witnessed. I debated inside my head whether to stay hidden or reveal myself and offer support. Jack was an asshole, but no one deserved that.

Jack finally stirred, and the look I saw on his runny face made it clear I did
not
want to be the next person he saw. Seething, he buried his fist in the locker next to me, as all the hurt and hate inside him contorted his bruised and puffy face. I jumped, but held my ground; apparently still invisible in the coolness of the shadow.

Jack walked past me to the sink to wash his face and his split knuckles, and then finished clearing out his locker and stormed out of the locker room. After he left, I eased out of my spot by the fountain and shuddered as I felt the spell or whatever it was break like suction when I pulled away.

I was still shaking by the time I finally got back to English. The encounter in the locker room replayed over and over again in my head while I stared out the window. The leaves outside Mr. Decker’s window shivered a rich auburn in the breeze and I fought to focus past the static in my head. The kid behind me, Brett, moved his leg and I jumped.

As if today wasn’t screwed up enough already, an invisible tail was hanging out the back of my chair.

I felt its weight as it swished back and forth and things brushed against the fur. My face felt weird too. I twitched my nose as whiskers tickled, and I ground my teeth to push back at the pressure on their roots. I ran my tongue along them to make sure they were still normal and almost bit it when Brett stepped on the tip of my imaginary tail.

Well Jimmy, you’re officially losing your mind. Maybe Jack knocked something loose. On the bright side, maybe everyone will just assume you’re on meth.

After class, Fen went on to the art room ahead of me as I stopped at my locker to grab my art supplies. I fought my way down the hallway toward Mrs. Ashcroft’s room, and froze when I glanced up.

“Shit…”

Jack, Malcolm, Bo, and another guy from P.E. named Randy stood in a circle around the corner from sophomore hall. Panic washed over me, and I jumped out of sight behind the wall. I strained my ears past the sound of my pounding heart.

“—who’da thought—wimp could pack a punch—that?” Randy’s voice faded in and out and I tried to focus through the hallway noise and feigned looking for something in my backpack.

“Yeah…” Jack’s voice replied and then I didn’t hear anything but the hallway for a long moment.

“—your Dad, wasn’t it?” Bo’s baritone was easy to identify.

“Don’t te—body—pulled some strings—” Jack sounded irritated. I guess I’d entertained the spiteful hope that they’d been suspended, but should’ve known better. It didn’t take a genius to figure that most of the school’s income came from sports, so the cash cow athletes got away with murder, especially in the heat of their football season.

“Why?” Bo asked my question for me.

“Just fucking—I tell you to! C’mon—go.”

Too late, I realized the way to the exit was down the hall behind me. I backed up along the wall and glanced around in desperation for an open locker, a dark cranny, a convenient boulder,
anywhere
I could hide. A sound behind me caught my attention, and I looked over my shoulder as the Auditorium door cracked open and concealing darkness called to me on the other side. The cool air turned frigid as I ducked inside and pressed the door closed behind me, afraid to breathe.   

I heard Jack’s muffled voice through the door, “Hey, where you been babe?”

Tabby’s voice answered him; anger and irritation clear even through the wood, “Obviously, I’ve been avoiding
you
…”

“Hey! Don’t you walk away from me!”

“Ow, Jack, stop it!” The hallway quieted as Tabby cried out in pain. “Jack!” Bo shouted at the same time Randy said “Dude, let go!”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Tabby sobbed, “Are you completely mental? I can’t take this anymore! It’s always the same with you, you hurt me, you’re sorry, but then you just do it again—Fuck you Jack! We’re over!”

“It isn’t over until I fucking say it’s over!”

“Go fuck yourself Jack…”

“Tabby!”

“
Let her go, Jack, let her go!” Randy yelled and I jumped as something big slammed against door, while Bo’s voice from the other side, “Dude, it’s bad enough they cut you from the team, going after her is only gonna make it a whole lot worse! Just calm down!”

“Fuck you both,” someone grunted like they were pushed, “and fuck that slut too. I can’t believe this shit; I’m losing
everything
because of him…” Jack’s rant faded as he moved away from the door. I relaxed and blew out the breath I realized I’d been holding, while a fluttering sound drew my eyes toward the stage.

It was cold in here, but the stage-lights illuminated a single figure on the edge of the platform. He looked young, like a freshman, with black hair like mine, but he was s
orta scrawny and his Dragonball-Z t-shirt hung loose off his frame.  

“Hey, were you the one who opened the door?” He looked up at me as I walked down the aisle, like he was surprised to see someone talking to him.

“I haven’t left the stage for a while now, s-sorry.” He tilted his head a little in a jerky motion, almost like a bird. “Y-you’re Jimmy aren’t you?”

“Yeah, do I… know you?” I asked, and scoured my memory to try and remember if I’d seen him in the hall or any of my classes.

He winced and shoved his hands in his pockets, like he was embarrassed. “Not really, but I used to be friends with Fen and Loki.” His tone grew sour, and he glanced toward the back of the room, “They don’t like to talk about me, I’m not really a part of their world anymore.” He smiled awkwardly and glanced around the room, but never once met my eyes. “I’ve wanted to meet you for a while now,” he muttered.

“I’m sorry, but I’m supposed to meet Fen in the art room. Did you want to come with me and say hi?” I offered.

“Thanks, but no, Fen and I had a bit of a falling out, and—If they saw me with you, it’d create a bit of a stir.” He smiled sadly but laughed as if it was some kind of private joke.

“Well, maybe I’ll see you in the hall sometime?” I tried to be polite.

“Not likely…” He said like he didn’t really believe it.

“Well,
at least tell me get your name.” I snapped, irritated.

“
Um… Corwin, but d-don’t tell the others that you met me, don’t even mention my name,” he stuttered nervously. “I’ve been trying to talk to Loki, but I can never seem to get through to her.
Promise
me you won’t tell them? Please?” He pleaded and met my eyes for the first time; his were dark cold cobalt and somehow unsettling.

His urgency took me aback. “Okay, sure, I promise not to tell them.”

H
e sighed, “Thank you,” he muttered as he turned and walked toward the back of the stage, and I went back up the aisle to the hallway door. A cool breeze ruffled my hair and I looked back toward Corwin, but all I saw was a gently swaying crimson curtain and I shivered.

I cracked the door open and peeked into the hallway. No one was nearby, so I slipped out of the room and the door closed behind me with a definitive click. When I pushed back against it, it had locked and refused to budge. I frowned and adjusted my backpack on my shoulder as I walked to Mrs. Ashcroft’s room, and knocked on the door for Fen to let me in.

I got my stuff out, and stared at the splotchy mess that was supposed to be my assignment, while my brain thought about everything except art. Bit by bit, I told Fen about all the weird things happening to me. Except, of course, what happened in the locker room and my brief chat with Corwin. I didn’t say anything about disappearing into the shadows either; I didn’t quite know what to make of that yet anyway…

“It’s almost like—” I
hesitated, “Like the night after you bit me; I hear these whispering voices and my skin’s hypersensitive.”

Fen asked if I was still wearing the silver and I showed him, then he sat silent a moment as his brush glided over his paper. “You can feel the veil thinning…”

“What veil?” My forehead scrunched in confusion.

“The veil between the worlds, the… membrane that separates the spiritual from the physical.” Fen stood and paced behind me. “Halloween is the modern celebration of All Hallows Eve and the
Day of the Dead, and even further back, the ancient pagan holiday of Samhain and the Autumnal Equinox. One of the few times each year when angels, demons, and spirits can cross the veil and influence or even manifest in the physical plane.”

“So, how come I’ve never noticed this veil thinning before now?”

Fen heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Because you weren’t becoming a wolf before. What we are, what you’re becoming, exists somewhere in between. We straddle both planes, embedded in the physical world while always tethered to the Lowerworld.

“Loki has trouble with voices and visions this time of year. You might too… When you were first bitten, you changed faster than any of us could have imagined, it might have just plunged you deep into the middle ground. Either that or maybe you have some latent natural talent that just woke up. Has anyone in your family mentioned experiences like this?”

I shook my head and quickly changed the subject. “What about the tail and stuff? That can’t have anything to do with the moon; it’s waning, almost new. How can that be related?”

“Our wolf bodies exist in the etheric plane simultaneously over our physical one, different, but there. It’s really very simple; as the veil thins it’s easier for your other body to manifest.”

“Okay, ‘it’s really very simple’, except I still don’t understand what the hell this ‘etheric plane’ even
is.
”

He frowned as he tried to figure out a way to describe it, then he held his hands out, palms flat over each other. “Okay, so, think of reality as the layers of a cake, the bottom layers are denser and thicker than the top ones. That bottom layer would be the physical world, where matter and energy and everything are most densely mushed together. Our bodies generate huge amounts of energy, the electricity that controls our nerves, the calories our cells burn to sustain themselves, et cetera.

“The next layer up would be the etheric plane, which is still pretty dense, but mostly energy.” He shook his top hand for emphasis, “Everybody has a uh… duplicate form there, an exact shadow made of their body’s energy. If something were removed from the physical realm,” he curled one of the fingers on his bottom hand, “the etheric counterpart would still exist, which is why phantom limb syndrome occurs, because the nervous system is still picking up feedback from the etheric energy body.

“We experience something similar because shifters actually have
two
distinct etheric bodies, human and animal, and sometimes we feel phantom limbs for appendages we’ve never physically had, like ears or a tail. That’s part of the reason why our metabolism is so ridiculous; we’re literally eating for two etheric bodies.

“Part of how shifting is possible is that our physical bodies and their etheric counterparts are more deeply enmeshed than most, so we can pull some of our etheric form into the physical realm.” He curled his fingers and laced them together, “When the veil thins, it’s easier for your wolf to manifest in the physical world, so his senses run parallel to yours, and they’re
much
better than our human senses will ever be.”

“Is this, like, that astral plane I hear people talk about?”

“Not quite, the astral plane is the next higher, it’s more like the realm of thought and emotion. The energy in that plane is more diffused, which is why some people can see auras or share each other’s thoughts, and because it’s more removed from the physical that’s how some people can astral project.

“Then what’s the next layer up from that?”

“The whipped cream,” Fen joked, and smiled, “Sorry, no one’s really sure exactly what’s above that though, but I think it’s the plane of the soul, of consciousness and identity. Hell, for all I know, the next layer up is the Lowerworld” Fen shrugged and crouched on his chair, thinking. “Hmm, you might be able to prove a theory of mine.”