We reached the great double doors of the event center—a sprawling building in the country. Bright lights and the scent of fresh-baked bread flooded out from the entry. We walked across the stone tiled foyer where a modest bar stood, covered mostly with wine bottles. A tall, handsome bartender quickly served his customers full glasses of reds, whites, and some cocktails, keeping the long line moving.
“Hello, welcome, thanks so much for coming.” A woman in black dress slacks and a royal blue, silk top greeted us as we entered the dining hall. She eyed our invitations with a quick glance and escorted us to a large round table with seating for ten.
The benefit for rescued animals was being held at a ranch-style community center in Arlington on a five-acre plot of land. The many floor-to-ceiling windows gave way to views of mountains in the distance and horse pastures lining the square lot.
“Shawna puts on the best galas,” Aunt Abigale said with motherly pride as she sat and folded a white fabric napkin across her lap.
Aunt Patricia nodded. “I look forward to this every year.”
Posters propped on easels lined the dining hall, and an ongoing video of dogs playing with ropes and chew toys projected onto a white curtain at the front of the room.
Servers in black slacks and white button-up tops breezed through the room leaving warm bread on each table. I reached for the sweating glass pitcher of ice water with lemon wedges, and poured myself a drink, then offered to fill the empty glasses belonging to my coterie.
The large potted plants in each corner had to have been Shawna’s decision. Greenery and trees are to huldra what name brand clothes are to high schoolers.
My three aunts served themselves bread smeared with butter, and then passed the food to Olivia, Celeste, and me.
I was slathering soft butter onto my chunk of pre-cut bread, when Renee spoke past the bread in her mouth. “You sure you’re not feeling your huldra, being around so many human males?”
“Aunt Renee,” I scolded. I peered around the room. My warning gaze came to rest on her. “Not here. People can hear you.”
She lowered her voice to hide her words from those outside the huldra persuasion. “I think we should attack, that’s all I’m saying.”
We had to have looked odd, women sitting at a table with lips moving like a regular conversation, but void of audible sound. But nowadays, with Bluetooth earbuds in everyone’s ears, it wasn’t like they were going to notice.
“I don’t want to start a war we can’t finish,” Celeste added. “Plus, we’ve got time. Using a male didn’t work, so even if they aren’t going to quit, they have to regroup before trying again.”
“Thank you,” I said, nodding toward my sister.
I picked up Shawna’s scent before the other members of my group seemed to realize she was headed to our table. My sense of smell must have gotten stronger. I turned to look for her among the people mulling about. She cut through the crowd and stood behind her mother, Aunt Abigale. They both had mocha skin and black hair, though Abigale didn’t style hers in dreads.
“Oops, I almost sloshed my drink on you,” Shawna said, wiping her mother’s shoulder. “I can’t talk long, but I wanted to come and say hi.”
“It’s lovely.” Aunt Abigale held her daughter’s hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
Olivia lifted her nose and inhaled. “Is that an alcoholic drink?”
Shawna laughed. “Yes, long island iced tea.” She shimmied the tall clear goblet-looking glass. “If I’m going to present a touching, heartfelt speech that’ll give people the urge to open their wallets and write checks, I’ll need this elixir to turn down my anxiety a few notches.” Shawna had an insatiable love for animals, not so much for people, and certainly not for public speaking. “Did you see the bar when you came in?”
I nodded. I’d hoped to get myself a glass of wine before Aunt Renee started in.
Shawna continued, “The bartender showed up late.” She gave a cleansing breath. “But he’s here now, so the festivities can begin.” She took a swig of her drink. “Oh, and yes this table will be full, so when the others come please be gracious and act human.”
“We’ll be perfectly polite,” Aunt Renee assured her.
“You have nothing to worry about. You outdo yourself every year, and I’m sure this year will be no different,” Aunt Abigale boasted on her daughter’s behalf.
A young man in black slacks and a white button-up shirt hurried over to my sister and tapped her on the shoulder. “Excuse me, Shawna. I’m sorry to interrupt,” he said to my aunt then turned toward Shawna. “The bartender is saying he ran out of vodka.”
Shawna’s eyes widened and she pointed to her drink before she turned around to address the young man. “There’s more in the storage unit outside. I’ll go grab it.” She turned to us. “If I’m not back before the event begins, enjoy.”
She didn’t return to our table. The humans she mentioned, however, did. We offered the obligatory smiles and then kept mainly to ourselves. Thankfully, the awkwardness didn’t last long.
The woman who had greeted us at the dining room entrance made her way to the front of the room with a microphone clutched in her right hand. Each soft fold of her dark blue silk top shimmered. “Welcome to our annual benefit,” she said to the crowd. “Where we endeavor to give back to those animals who’ve given us so very much.”
The room filled with applause and she stood beaming while a video of animals from their rescue center played across the screen behind her. “Our four-legged friends are among our most precious natural resources. It means a lot to the staff at Northwest Animal Rescue that you made it out tonight, but most of all, it means a lot to our four-legged friends. It means another year of meals, of proper bedding, of unconditional love, and of medical care. Hopefully your presence also means these amazing animals will have a second chance at happiness.”
She paused for the crowd to applaud.
“Allow me to introduce Shawna Frey, our valued and hardworking director, without whom this night, and most of our rescue center, wouldn’t have been possible. Shawna?” The woman in the blue top scanned the room for my sister. “Shawna? Where’d you go?” she said with the timid laugh of someone who was ready to hand over the microphone and retreat from the limelight.
People from the audience looked around the room as though they’d know my sister when they saw her. I scanned the room, searching each table, each face, but Shawna was nowhere to be seen.
“She’s probably busy making sure tonight runs smoothly,” the woman up front said with a nervous laugh. She motioned to a staff member standing near the entrance to the dining hall, who quickly slipped out the double doors to find my sister.
Minutes ticked by and still no trace of Shawna. With the passing of each one a very bad feeling started to settle in my gut. For Shawna’s sake, I stayed put as long as I could. When the staff member didn’t return five minutes later, I stood.
“What are you doing?” Aunt Patricia said from the side of her mouth. She smiled to the humans at our table.
I leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Something isn’t right. Shawna is too on-the-ball to miss that cue. I’m going to go make sure everything’s okay.”
“I’ll go with you,” Olivia said as she stood and folded her napkin to place on her empty plate.
The remaining members of my coterie couldn’t join us; they’d risk causing a scene. I was beyond the point of caring about such things. Something was wrong. I could feel it down deep. My huldra screamed at me to act, and with each passing minute, I grew more and more powerless to resist.
Eight
“Let’s rule out the bathroom first,” I spoke under my breath to Olivia as we exited the dining hall.
Olivia and I briskly walked into the women’s restroom and checked the stalls. No one. I left and popped my head into the men's bathroom, but only smelled the presence of males, which in this case, wasn’t pleasant. We stood in the restroom alcove between the men’s and wo
men’s bathrooms. “You think she got locked in the shed?” Olivia offered.
“Let me ask the bartender if she ever returned with the vodka.” We headed toward the makeshift bar.
A disorganized line of ten people stood near the bar chatting in aggravated tones, texting, looking about, and even tapping a foot in one case. No one stood behind the bar.
“Do you know where the bartender is?” I asked a woman who shifted from one high-heeled boot to the other, holding an empty white wine glass.
“Well, he said he had to grab more wine from storage, but that was a while ago, and now I’m missing the event,” she complained. “I don’t know why he thought he needed more bottles.” She pointed to a row of varying types of corked wine along the bar.
Olivia and I only shared a look before running from the building. The entrance patio was inlaid with stones that reminded me of European cobblestone streets. No storage buildings sat within view.
“Around back,” was all I said before taking off at a run. Olivia followed close behind.
“You’ve gotten faster,” she said, trying to catch up.
I didn’t need to think about that right now. Every moment I didn’t find Shawna my huldra rose closer to the surface, protective of her partner sister. Was that a scream I heard? I paused, going very still.
“Wait, did you just hear that?” I said, with the storage shed in my line of sight.
I bolted for the driveway. My sister’s faint screams didn’t come from the shed, but from the black Bentley tearing out of the gravel driveway. I knocked my heels off and chased after her, pushing myself harder than I ever had before.
Shawna cried out again in a muffled slur as the car left the driveway and sped away, down the road and into darkness. Still, I pursued my sister and her abductors despite the increasing distance between the car and me. My bare feet smacked the wet pavement as I willed them to push me faster than possible, even for a huldra, fast enough to reach the car that now sped out of sight. I stopped short at the street and smacked at the air in front of me. My lungs worked to draw in more air. Everything in me wanted to keep running, but there was no way I could outrun a speeding car.
“Did you catch the license plate?” Olivia asked between gasps of air after she caught up to me.
“It was covered.” Angry tears filled the corners of my eyes.
My aunt’s grey four-door crossover screeched to a halt beside me on the empty, dark road and the passenger doors flung open. Olivia and I jumped in.
“I’ll kill them. I’ll kill all of them,” Aunt Renee hissed as she slammed her foot on the gas. We peeled out. The car fishtailed before it found its traction and raced in the direction our sister had been taken.
Aunt Abigale sat in the second row of seats, rubbing her arms and rocking. Her eyes glazed over. It would have been easier if Shawna’s mother were filled with rage like her sisters—anger was an emotion one could work with, use to fuel their fight—but only fear shone in her eyes. It took the rising tension in the car to a whole other level, a new level of discomfort.
“All they had to do was control another unsuspecting male. Get him to try again.” Aunt Renee smacked the steering wheel. “Where the hell is that damn car?”
“We’ve lost them. We’ve lost her,” Aunt Abigale whispered from behind us.
Rain pelted the windshield. The wipers worked at full speed. Silent tears fell from Celeste’s eyes. Aunt Renee pulled the car to the side of the road.
I sat in the front passenger seat and turned to the others. “Why would they take her, though? It’s not like they mistook her for me. We look nothing alike.”
“We have no car tracks to follow. We should be smart about this—go home, gather what we need, and then go get her. Tonight.” Renee eyed Patricia in the rearview mirror. “The succubi are no doubt en route to Oregon. We’ll dig up the weapons and go.”
Patricia nodded. “Yes, we’d be smart to recover those, but attacking tonight would be unwise. If we’re heading home, we should stay the night and leave in the morning, well rested and with a plan.”
“We have weapons?” I asked, surprised. Everything they’d taught my sisters and me revolved around keeping our heads down and maintaining peace, following the rules. Soon after I became a bounty hunter they’d requested that I keep my gun in my tree home, or my car, because it made them uneasy.
“Of course we have weapons,” Aunt Renee spat. “We knew there’d be another Wild Woman war one of these days. It was only a matter of time.” She quieted for a moment as though her statement brought new ideas to mind. “If it’s a war they want, it’d be dumb for us to pursue them without weapons of our own.” She pulled from the side of the road, using her SUV’s four-wheel-drive to release us from the mud with ease, and made a U-turn toward home.
Aunt Patricia rested a hand on my shoulder from the second row of seats. “What my sister is trying to say is the peace your mother dreamed of between every group of Wild Women was a lofty goal, but nothing more than a dream. We’ve never been at peace with the other groups, least of all the succubi. We have a stash hidden for such a time as this.”
“According to her stories, all our kinds got along at one point,” I said. I’d mentioned her stories when I was a child and received a scolding for it, so it wasn’t a topic I brought up lightly or often.
“Fairytales,” Renee said matter-of-factly without taking her eyes from the road.
“But you’ve placed so much trust in the Hunters. Why assume you’ll one day have to protect yourselves?” I said. It made no sense.
“Forced trust is just a more palatable expression of obedience,” Renee spat. “Where are they now? Where is your mother? Where were they last night?”
“John is different,” Celeste reminded us of the local Hunter complex’s leader, who’d moved to his post long after my mother’s disappearance.
“Yes, John is different.” Aunt Patricia’s methodical mind spun as she spoke calmly. Though I would not mistake her calm for not caring. She possessed the peace of a tiger stalking its prey—a calculated calm. “And while Faline could not go to him for help about last night, without revealing what she’d done, there is no harm in reporting Shawna’s abduction. That should be our first stop before an illegal trip to Oregon.”
“Is that our plan?” Olivia spoke up from the third row of the crossover.
My two aunts nodded. Shawna’s mother stared ahead with tears in her eyes while Celeste sat beside her, rubbing her shoulders.
Aunt Renee turned into our long and winding driveway. It stretched through trees to keep our homes hidden.
“I’ll go to the complex and talk to John alone,” I announced. “The succubi took her because of me. She’s my partner sister. And if our whole coterie descends on the Hunter complex, unscheduled, it may cause more problems than we’re capable of handling at this point.”
“That’s not a good idea,” Celeste said. “What if they do an on-the-spot check-in examination? They’ll never let you leave the complex.”
I eyed my aunts for confirmation as I spoke. “I don’t think they’re allowed to administer an exam without at least a twelve-hour notice, right?”
“According to the agreement between the Wild Women and the Hunters, yes,” Patricia said, meeting my gaze. “Best not to mention your hotel mishap, though. I’m sure there’s some sort of fine print to this rule that we aren’t aware of. Those in charge do love their loopholes. Plus, John is still a Hunter and part of his job is to make sure we don’t do what you did that night.”
I nodded. I had no intention of reliving that blood-filled night. Not even through words.
“And if John does nothing?” Renee asked as she parked her car in front of the common house. “Like the Hunter complex leader before him did nothing when my sister went missing?”
Abigale shuddered and I spoke more to comfort her than to answer Renee. “Shawna is my sister. There’s nothing I won’t do to get her back.”
Renee shot me a look
of offense.
I hadn’t meant to offend her, but assuring her of this was the least of my worries. I reached an arm behind my back and ran my fingers across the bark ridges beneath my shirt. Yes, my aunts had done everything in their power to find my mother, their sister, all those years ago. But the huldra in me, now awake and growing in strength, gave me a power my aunts hadn’t dreamed of possessing. Hopefully, it was enough to save my sister, but not so much that a Hunter could sense a difference in me without the bright surgical light, without pulling up my shirt for examination.
I met the eyes of every woman in the car and gave an unwavering nod of confidence that I desperately wished I felt. Before the invention of lights and routine check-ins, Hunters could sense the depth of wildness inside a Wild Woman just by being near her. I didn’t know how they did this, but for the sake of my sister and my own safety, I wished I did.
Nine
I inched my car toward the security camera and speaker box and stopped. I’d never just “dropped in” on the Hunters. And while I knew I wouldn’t be met with tea and cakes, I hoped I’d get a welcome that didn’t include a locked gate or guns pointed at my car. I glanced into my backseat to double-check that my jacket was still thrown over my suitcase, hoping the security camera didn’t get a glimpse and scolding myself for not storing it in the trunk. Shawna knew me better than anyone, and the other night in the woods she’d hit the nail on the head. My proverbial sword had been drawn. And I was waiting to see whether or not I’d have to fall on it.
With my huldra released and now threatening to take over whenever she liked, and a growing bark patch to show for it, I was a liability. And without my partner sister to stick around for, there was little reason to put my coterie in that predicament with the Hunters. So, I’d talk to John. If he didn’t offer help, I’d drive to Oregon and face the succubi. The rest of my plan depended on whether or not Shawna was with them and still living. My coterie knew I might drive across state lines without Hunter approval. My next check-in exam would reveal that I’d killed a human, so breaking their rule prohibiting Wild Woman traveling outside our area seemed trivial. They didn’t, however, know that even if I survived a run-in with the succubi, for the safety of my coterie, I may not come back.
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