Walking Wolf Road (Wolf Road Chronicles Book 1) (20 page)

I lifted my finger to my lips in the ‘shhh’ gesture as I winked at the cashier and Fen returned to the bookshelves. When he noticed that the book was missing, I walked past him with empty hands and climbed upstairs feeling quite pleased with myself. I borrowed Geri’s key to pop the trunk and stashed my smuggled loot before the others came out, and Geri struck off through the holiday traffic.

I’d never spent much time in malls in Miami or Chicago, never really liked them or the people who frequented them, but as we pulled into the parking lot my packmates’ excitement infected me. We circled like vultures for a while, before we finally scored a spot in my absolute farthest corner of B.F.E. and squished through the slush. Past the bell-ringer, we entered the warm chaos of the food court.

The frenetic energy of the shoppers crashed into me like a wave, and I stumbled, though I played it off like I’d just snagged my foot on something. The Christmas Cocktail; eagerness and stress, with liberal doses of joy and rage and just a splash of desperation for spice.

We made our way in and out of a dizzying array of stores, past bath shops that oozed a suffocating blanket of chemical scents, and through the mazes of clothing racks, bloated prices, and warring states known as department stores until we ended up at the Goth Gap. I occupied myself with a stack of band tees, and glanced over when Fen walked out of the changing room in a pair of leather pants and a fishnet shirt.

Fen looked… well… like an apple in Eden. You knew you shouldn’t touch; yet you found yourself wanting to sink your teeth in anyway. Unwelcome thoughts slithered through my head and I felt sick. Fen noticed me watching, and called me over, yelling over the cacophony of Emo music and ornery customers. “Well, what do you think?”
Why was he doing this? It was almost like he knew how he affected me…

“Uh, y-you look good.” I stuttered as blood tingled in my cheeks, and Loki laughed. “What’s so funny?”

“It’s just; Fen’s all blonde and stuff, and you’re all tan and dark. You two are like day and night… Ooh! I need at picture of this!” she suddenly squealed, then whipped out her cell phone.

“Well then, what a pair we make!” Fen laughed, and without warning he wrapped a leg around my waist and leaned back. I thought he was falling and panicked. I grabbed him and almost tipped over when a clicking sound came from Loki’s direction and we froze. Fen looked at me, and I looked at him. He grinned, and I saw something victorious in his gaze before he leaned back up and stepped away.

My brain dissolved into chaos when I heard Loki whisper, “Oh my god this is the greatest picture
ever
, it looks like Jimmy’s
molesting him!
”

“
What!
” I bellowed and jumped over, only to groan with disgust. The action shot on my face and odd positioning, did indeed make it look as though I was having my wicked way with him. And worse still were the images in my mind’s eye as I fought the sick feeling in my stomach and pounding heart. When I looked over again, I saw Geri literally rolling on the floor with laughter clutching Loki’s cell phone and wailing how “They make such a cute couple!”

“Loki, please, please delete that.” I begged and tried to snatch the phone out of his hand.

“No way,” Loki shouted as she pulled it out of my reach, “this is going on our Christmas card this year!”

At that moment, I glanced longingly out the front of the store and wondered if there were too many people to manage a flawless swan dive over the second floor railing…

I continued to sulk and entertain self-destructive thoughts through our hasty chicken teriyaki dinner. We hiked back to our parking spot just as the sun disappeared in a blaze of orange fire behind the mountains. As we drove home, I stared off into the starlit fields and thickets patched with snow and Fen laid down across the seat and rested his head on my thigh.

“You know,” he mumbled quietly, “we did make a pretty cute couple…”

I sighed and looked out the window, and let my thoughts drift as Fen used my leg as an improvised pillow, and Geri’s stereo played; “Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. And since we’ve no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…”

I felt a faint smile twitch at the corners of my mouth as I indulged in the ‘what if’s and ‘what could be’s of my imagination’s masochistic fancies.

Fen and Loki stood before the dark cavern’s gaping maw. Dread filled me when I looked at it, but they held out their hands to me and I stepped forward and took them both. They led me forward through a torchlit passage and we emerged in a large chamber, where something reeked of ammonia and rot. A dry hissing like scales on sand issued from the shadows and terror seized my heart, but when I tried to run Fen and Loki held me between them like a sacrifice.

A shadow slithered toward us across the floor, and I begged them to release me, but instead they leaned in and both whispered, ‘But I love you’ into my ears. The shadow swelled to immense size as it drew near and finally the serpent was revealed and its broad wings spread toward the ceiling and glistened like a slick of oil against the deeper black. Its triangular head bore a red cross in the center of its forehead as my dragon opened its jaws wide; its saber-long fangs glittered like ivory in the torchlight. As it reared back to strike and my knees gave way underneath me, a shadow flew from behind me and tore into the behemoth’s throat. It hissed in rage and threw my wolf aside. It landed spread legged and ready, his teeth and eyes blazed vivid in the darkness. Over and over they clashed, each time the dragon went for me, my wolf defended me.

The battle reached a stalemate, both wounded by the prolonged torture they inflicted on each other, and I knew, as they did, that this last round would announce the victor.

I screamed as they lunged for each other, and Fen and Loki tore me apart.

I felt my ribs separate from my sternum and my arms ripped from their sockets as I woke up covered in sweat.

I shifted in my seat for the umpteenth time since the last class began. It was the last stretch—of the last class—of the last day before winter break; and I’d
swear
that damn clock just went backwards. Today was the winter solstice, and my last best chance…

I gathered my backpack in my lap and jumped up when the bell finally toned and everybody broke for the door. However, instead of bolting for my locker and out the door, I fought the tide and slipped into the auditorium.

I wrapped myself in shadows as I snuck down the rows of burgundy-upholstered chairs, and slipped behind the bunched curtain on the far end of the stage from the drama teacher, Mrs. Cartwright’s, office. I waited for her to shut down the lights and leave before I stepped out and looked around. I pulled my wolf into me and my eyes dilated; milking every last bit of green light from the emergency exit signs.

“Corwin?” I asked the green-tinted darkness, but only the room’s reverb answered. “Corwin…?” I tried again. This time after a few moments delay I felt a slight shiver and a chilled tendril of air in the already cool room.

“J-Jimmy?” at first the voice was directionless, but then he coalesced from the darkness of the back-stage; half-transparent in the eerie green light.

“Corwin, you’re… uh…” I faltered, not wanting to commit some sort of otherworldly faux-pas.

“You can say it, I’m dead,” he muttered and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“Yeah, the Ouija board sorta gave it away; I just didn’t want to believe it… So this is what you meant by ‘I’m no longer a part of their world’?”

“Yeah, I’m not part of the living world. I can almost reach Loki, but either she doesn’t understand, or she doesn’t w-want to.”

“Then how is it that you can talk to me?”

He sighed and sat down on the edge of the stage and rubbed the side of his face as he thought. I moved to sit down by him, and then froze when I noticed that I could still see the edge of the stage through his thighs—maybe I’d just stay standing… “That’s just another part of the puzzle isn’t it? There are so many questions surrounding you, it’s impossible to know where to start.”

“But why? I’m nothing special—”

“Oh, but you are Jimmy… You were destined for this, probably before you were even born. So many paths were broken and twisted to lead you here; don’t you d-dare write it off as circumstance.”

I snarled in frustration and paced the stage. What was the big deal; I was just another freak, nothing more than ‘the Pup’ to the Pack. Why was Corwin making such a big deal out of me? When no answers popped out of the ether, I asked one of the questions that’d bothered me instead. “Corwin, why haven’t you passed on? What’s keeping you here?”

At first he didn’t answer, but then he sighed and hung his head. “There are things I need to say, but the people who need to hear them either ignore me or can’t hear me.”

“So, ‘Unfinished Business” like you said?”

“Eh, s-sort of. It’s not something I
have
to do—but it’s something I’ve needed to do since that last flash of regret when it was already too late. I’m keeping myself here, in the hope that I can atone and salve the wounds I left.”

“I think, somehow, Fen knows you’re still here. He’s afraid that you’ll… ‘unbecome’ if you stay here too long.”

He snorted, “Fen thinks it’s his fault I killed myself. The truth is—well, I guess it sorta
is
his fault, but it’s not his alone.”
Ouch.
“I’ve tried to reach him in his sleep before, but the dream became a nightmare for him.”

I was thinking, “So, those dreams—and that raven before Halloween—that was you?”

“Yeah, I can only manifest my animal form outside of here; I can only appear human near where my body died.”

“Wait, you mean… you weren’t a wolf?”

“Nope, that was where it all started to go wrong after Fen bit me.” He trailed off. “I was supposed to be you…”

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

“Tell me what happened, tell me everything…” My mind reeled, but something told me that Corwin held the keys to
several
puzzles.

He looked away from me, “You m
-might not like what you hear.” I raised an eyebrow, and crossed my arms. He sighed and looked around the room. “Loki and I were Freshman, and I met Fen in—” He stopped and he looked quickly to the side.

I waited for him to continue, “What are—”

“Shh!” He hissed at me, his eyebrows knotted with concentration. His form faded a little as he stared off through the wall. “Jimmy, you have to go, you have to go now.”

“What? Why? I finally get to squeeze some damn answers out of you—”

“I don’t have time to explain, I promise I’ll tell you everything later…”

“When?”

“I don’t know, just…
l-later!
” He jumped up from the stage and glanced to the side again, like he heard something I didn’t, “Shit,
just go
, you h-have to h-h-hurry!” His stutter got so bad he could barely speak. He moved as if to push me, but all I felt was a wash of cold air.

I scowled and swung my backpack onto my shoulder, then huffed up the aisle and out the door, glancing behind to see an empty stage before the door closed.

I stopped at my locker to grab my coat and growled softly as I slammed the door. I turned toward the exit, and heard Corwin’s voice, faint and directionless. “N-no—l-library…” his voice faded in and out, like bad reception on a radio.

I turned on the ball of my foot and headed for the exit near the library. I grumbled and didn’t even look up as I slipped my coat on under my backpack and shoved the bar on the door, the cold air rushed around me.

I heard a sound and raised my eyes, but it took me a moment to realize what I was seeing. Two sets of eyes glared at me, one pair looked with fear and hope. Jack and Malcolm dominated the small cowering form that uncovered its tear-streaked face and cried my name.

“Oh, so you know this freak, eh half-pint?” Jack grabbed Jacob by the collar of his coat and lifted him off his feet. My little brother bawled with fear, struggling and kicking.

“Put him down
now!
” I yelled and my blood pounded in my temples as I walked toward them. My wolf snarled within me as my skin crawled, every instinct screaming to protect Jacob.

“Or else what faggot? You gonna be the big man and ‘beat us up’?” Jack mocked, sounding just like his father. My eyes were locked on Jacob’s, and his on mine, pleading. I felt so weak, terrified that I couldn’t protect my brother.

Malcolm grabbed my shoulder to keep me from getting any closer. “You put my brother down… right now… whatever issues you have with me… stay with me…” I couldn’t remember how to speak; my brain stopped working in words as my wolf smashed against the invisible wall inside me.

“Oh, so this is your little brother? Coulda fooled me, guess your mamma fucked the mailman huh? How sweet, is big brother gonna save you?” Then Jack head-butted Jacob’s face, splitting his lip and bringing out a scream of agony that pushed my wolf and I over the edge. His little hands quickly covered in blood while Jack laughed.

Without thought, my backpack swung around and cracked Malcolm in the head with the combined mass of my textbooks. He reeled back and I tackled Jack to the ground. He dropped Jacob and I reached out for him, but Jack grabbed my leg and tripped me. I fell hard, and lost my wind when Malcolm jumped on my back. I tried to claw my way forward, but Jack pulled my arms out from under me and crushed my face into the frigid concrete.

“Jake, run home!
Run!
” I screamed.

“Jesus Jack, why’d you do that to the kid?” Malcolm grunted as he pinned me.

“Shut up Malcolm!” Jack snapped, and then leaned in close to my ear, “Does that feel good faggot? Yeah, you like that don’t you… It’s payback time you god-damned fudgepacker!” His knuckles collided with my cheek and bounced my skull of the concrete with a dull thunk that sent the world spinning. “You owe me big time for October! You cost me the finals, my scholarship, my girlfriend,” Jack’s knee rammed into my ribs and drove the air from my lungs, “you fucked
everything
up for me. But there’s no teacher around to save you now; you’ll be lucky if you make it out of this alive.”

My wide roving eyes landed on Jacob, curled and fetal, holding his face. His tears mixed with blood as they dripped off his chin. My wolf boiled inside me, frustrated with my weakness, he raged against the wall and I felt him bleed
through into me.

The growl began low in my throat, and my lips pulled back from my teeth as I tried to push myself up off the ground.

“Keep him down!”

“You ain’t goin’ nowhere asshole!” Malcolm growled as they shoved me back to the ground. My gaze crept from my little brother to Jack’s eyes, and I felt my wolf spill into them as I pushed up again, my breath fogging in the cold air.

“What the fuck?” Jack grimaced with confusion and fear.

“I said… you ain’t going… ugh!” Malcolm fought to keep me down, but my wolf was stronger. I lifted both of them with me as I pushed myself up. My growl grew louder and this time it didn’t even faze me when Malcolm punched me again, and again; I was already fading out. Jack’s eyes widened with fear, and a red curtain drew from the edges of my vision until all I could see was crimson, and the sound of screams seemed so very far away…

The pounding ache in my head registered even before I woke up. I cracked my eyes, and tried to pull the blurry vertical line of the ground into focus. Half my face was on fire; the other half was almost completely numb. I pushed myself up and lifted my hands to the sides of my face, but stopped when I saw they were red… and sticky… A fluttering sound drew my eyes up to the edge of the building, where a large black raven watched me. I nodded at Corwin in response to his eerily human-sounding call, and he faded from sight.