Wild Keepers

by Dee Bridgnorth

  Maya’s blush deepened, and she hastily stepped away from the mirror. “Evan, would you mind waiting outside for a minute? I have to change.”

  “Sure,” he said, smiling. He turned to leave. “Oh, I got you a sandwich from the cafeteria down the road, by the way. Thought you might like something to eat before this afternoon.”

  Maya stared at him, startled by his thoughtfulness. How did he know that she was starving?

  “Thank you,” she replied. “I’ll be ready in a minute.”

  When she walked out of the room, he was standing there, waiting for her. She felt her heart start to thud, uncomfortably. It was inexplicable, and she couldn’t work it out. It seemed despite everything—the fact that they were as different as chalk and cheese, and that he had irritated her beyond measure in the short time that she had known him—she was attracted to him. Very attracted. In fact, she could barely stop her body reacting in strange and unpredictable ways whenever he was around her.

  And that was often. He was her bodyguard, after all.

  “Here you go,” he said, handing her the sandwich. She stared at it. It was egg and lettuce, one of her favourites. How had he known?

  “You work too hard,” he said quickly. “You never give yourself time to eat properly.”

  Maya stared at him. “I’m just so busy. There’s barely time to scratch myself lately.” She sighed. “But I like it. It keeps my mind off…things.” She quickly looked away.

  “You’ve never told me,” he said. “What exactly happened in that room?”

  Maya hesitantly smiled. “Haven’t I? I guess I’ve just wanted to forget it. I had to talk about it at length with the police, and every time I did, it was like I was back there, and it was happening all over again.”

  Evan nodded. “I understand. But I think it would be good for me to have a look at this room, and hear about what happened. Your version, that is, not the rumours.” He paused, staring hard at her. “If you are up to it, of course.”

  Maya sighed. “Let’s do it now, then,” she said. “I can eat and talk at the same time. If you must know, I would rather get it over and done with.”

  “If you want,” he said, staring at her.

  He followed her as she determinedly walked away.

  Maya didn’t know what had possessed her to do this now. She didn’t want to do it at all. She would prefer that she never went back into that room in her life…but something in the way Evan had asked had unlocked something in her.

  Perhaps it would be good to face it again. She couldn’t avoid it forever, could she?

  But as she got closer to it and saw the door, her feet started to drag.

  “This is it,” she said lightly, turning to Evan.

  He stared at her and opened the door. She saw the look of surprise in his eyes as he gazed into the space. “Geez. Do you people never throw anything away?”

  Maya laughed, despite herself. “You never know when a costume will be needed again, I suppose. And maybe one day they might end up in a costume museum somewhere?”

  Evan laughed, too. “Is there such a thing?”

  “Yes,” said Maya, staring at him. “There is. And you aren’t going to make fun of it, Evan. People love costumes and want to see them. It’s part of the art, and the performance.”

  They walked into the room. Maya’s heart started to thud again. It was exactly as she remembered it, down to the smallest detail; costumes crammed tightly onto racks, and hanging from the ceiling.

  It looked different in the day time, though. Not as menacing. In fact, the costumes looked downright forlorn, and a bit shabby. It was hard to conjure the overwhelming terror that she had felt that night, and for that she was grateful.

  “Are you alright, Maya?” Evan was staring at her, intensely. “I know this must be hard for you.”

  Maya took a deep breath. “It’s okay,” she said slowly. “It’s good to face your fears, don’t they say? And it’s not as bad in the daylight. Less ominous.”

  He nodded. “Where exactly did you find him?” he quietly asked.

  Maya paled. “Over here,” she whispered, walking towards the spot.

  It had been cleaned up, of course. She remembered after the guard and police had come, and the lights had come back on, that there had been a trail of blood. It was so hard to believe that it had even happened now.

  It was just a room. A dusty, mildewy room, overloaded with costumes. Not the labyrinth of terror that she recalled.

  “Did you just see him?” asked Evan, gently, staring around the room.

  “Yes,” she whispered, her eyes fixed to the spot. “I thought at first that it was a costume, and then saw that it was a man sitting in a chair…”

  “A chair?” said Evan, sharply. He looked around. “There doesn’t seem to be any chairs in here now.”

  Maya frowned slightly. “No, it’s gone.” She took a deep breath. “I thought at first that he was asleep. And the next thing was realising that it was David. I shook him…and that’s when I knew. I saw the blood trickling out of his mouth.”

  Evan gazed at her. “I’m sorry you had to find him, Maya. It would have been awful.”

  She blinked back tears, trying to stop herself from bursting into tears. “It was awful,” she said. “It was the most terrifying night of my life.”

  “Why were you in here?” he asked, frowning.

  She stared around. “I got lost,” she whispered. “I was rehearsing by myself, and the lights suddenly went out. I couldn’t see a thing. I was just stumbling along, trying to get out of the building, and I took a wrong turn.”

  “What happened with the lights?” Evan stared at her. “Is it something that happens a lot in this building?”

  Maya frowned. “Yes, it is, now that I think about it. The lights often flicker on and off. Do you think it’s something to do with the wiring in this building? It’s so old.”

  Evan nodded. “Perhaps.” Or perhaps not, he said to himself. There could be another reason behind it.

  Evan had worked enough cases in Covenester to know that flickering lights was one sign that the Vilgath were around. A common one. And while it may be just faulty wiring, he couldn’t rule out that demons were perhaps at work here.

  “Anyway,” said Maya, taking a deep breath. “That’s what happened, on that night. The lights started flickering on and off, then went out completely. I stumbled into this room…and couldn’t get out.” Her voice had faded to a whisper.

  “What do you mean?” asked Evan, staring at her closely. “You couldn’t find the door again?”

  She shook her head. “No. It was terrible. I only had a dim light from my phone, and I felt like I was lost in here. Every way that I turned seemed to lead me deeper into it. Like it was a maze.” She laughed, a bit self-consciously. “This strange thought stuck in my head, that I was like Alice from Alice in Wonderland and had fallen down the rabbit hole into some bizarre new world.”

  Evan didn’t reply for a moment. He was gazing up at the ceiling, frowning. As if he was searching for something.

  Maya gazed up, slowly. She was staring at the ceiling, the very same spot that she had seen it. Suddenly, the vision of it, exactly as it had appeared to her that night, came into her mind. She staggered forward, gasping.

  Evan had his arms around her, steadying her. “Maya! What is it?”

  She gazed up at him. This time, she couldn’t stop it. The tears burst forth like a river. Appalled, she covered her face with her hands, trying to stem the tide.

  “Maya,” he whispered. “It’s alright. You’re safe now.”

  “No,” she cried, twisting away from him. “I’m not! There’s something out there, Evan.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “And it saw me!”

  He looked down at her, his instincts alert. And he could feel the hackles raising on his back, too. The wolf, simmering beneath the surface.

  Sensing danger.

  ***

  Evan listened, his frown deepening, as she he
sitantly told him what she had seen that night.

  “You are going to think that I am crazy,” she said, tears welling in her eyes again. “I haven’t told anybody, not even the police…”

  “Maya,” he said softly. “You can tell me. I won’t think you’re crazy.”

  She gulped, painfully. “I don’t know why I looked up,” she said slowly. “It was like…my eyes just did it, without me even realising. It was floating on the ceiling.” She pointed upwards. “Just there.”

  “What did it look like?” He stared at her closely.

  She huffed out a laugh. “Like nothing I have ever seen before,” she replied. “It didn’t look human. Or rather, it had the figure of a human…a human woman, actually.”

  Evan nodded, his face impassive. “Go on.”

  “It was wearing a white dress,” she said hesitantly. “Like an old-fashioned nightdress. Its skin was kind of…leathery and grey. It had hair, but only a few long strands, which were twisting around its face like ribbons.” She was staring at the ceiling, as if she could still see it. “And it was kind of floating, like I said. But also, as if it was stuck there.”

  Evan stared at the ceiling. His heart sank. What Maya had just described was definitely a Vilgath demon. Not quite as he had seen one appear before, but there was enough similarity. He had battled many of these demons before, and he knew that they could hover suspended in the air, if they wished to evade detection.

  He had never seen one appear in a white nightdress, but they were all different. Maya had said that this one had the figure of a woman. He frowned. What was a female demon doing in here, and why had it killed David Wagner? What did it want?

  “Do you think it was a ghost?” whispered Maya, her brown eyes staring at him. “There’s many stories of them in this building. I laughed at them, of course, but now…I’m not so sure.” She gulped, again. “They say a woman walks the hallways. And there is another story, about a man who appears with a wolf by his side.”

  Evan froze. “A wolf?”

  Maya nodded. “That’s what the story says,” she whispered. “Evan, do you think that I am mad, talking about ghosts and visions? I only know what I saw. Or did I hallucinate?”

  Evan put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face him. “Maya, you aren’t crazy,” he said slowly. “I believe that you saw something. Whether it was a ghost or a hallucination, I don’t know. Sometimes, when the mind is overwhelmed with terror, visions can appear. And you had one hell of a fright, discovering a dead body.”

  “So, you think I made it up?” she whispered, her eyes wide. “That it wasn’t real at all? That it was just my mind playing tricks on me?”

  “It’s possible,” he said gently.

  Suddenly, he was overwhelmed with the desire to tell her the truth. Didn’t she deserve that? She’d had a terrifying experience, and she had seen a demon. Was it right for him to tell her that it was just a hallucination?

  But then…how could it possibly help her to know the truth? If she accepted that it was a demon, it would increase her fear. And Maya was already very frightened. She had gotten a little better in the past week; she had been distracted by the new production and had been so busy she had been flitting around this building like a dervish. If she believed there was a demon in here, she would be terrified all over again.

  And he was here to protect her. He couldn’t be with her twenty-four hours a day, but he could keep the evil at bay while he was in this building, or with her elsewhere. He was suddenly very grateful that Jack had assigned him to be her personal bodyguard. He hadn’t really thought that she needed it, but she obviously did.

  If there was a demon hovering around, then it might still want to cause havoc. And Maya was right. It could have its sights set on her next. It had seen her, and it knew that she had seen it. That could make her vulnerable. And he still had no idea what its purpose was in this building or with this company.

  His fists clenched at the thought of the demon doing Maya harm. She had been very, very lucky that night. It could have swooped down and killed her, too. Why it hadn’t was a puzzle.

  And it was a puzzle that he needed to solve. He knew now that there was definitely Vilgath involvement here. Thad had been right, as always. How did the alpha leader always smell it, even when everyone else couldn’t?

  He needed to get to the bottom of this. And he needed to keep Maya safe in the process.

  That was his top priority.

  ***

  That evening, back in his loft at the warehouse, Evan stared through the skylight. The moon was a quarter of its way through its cycle, appearing like a crescent in the dark night sky. In three weeks, it would wax to its fullest, and the Wild Keepers would have to leave the city. Find a remote spot, where they could all unleash their wolves in a safe place.

  The city wasn’t safe for them. Too many people who could see them. When the wolves were unleashed, they all had no memory of what happened afterwards. The wolves could behave in ways that their human minds couldn’t control. And there were already enough rumours swirling through the city about wolves being seen on the streets.

  Evan sighed, turning over in the bed. He couldn’t get the image of Maya out of his mind, talking about the female demon hovering in the air. It had taken a lot for her to even tell him about it; he had seen how conflicted she was. She had been scared that he would think her crazy. He grinned. If only she knew that he turned into a wolf every month, and sometimes more. That he battled demons for a living. Who would be leading who to the asylum?

  But she could never know, of course. It wouldn’t be safe for her, but besides that, the fewer people who knew the truth about them the better. Those swirling rumours were probably started by people who had witnessed them turning in the line of duty. One person told another, and then another. Next minute, they wouldn’t be able to do their job anymore. So, it was in both Maya’s interest and his own that she never knew that he was a wolf shifter.

  What would she say, if he told her? He pictured her beautiful face, those large brown eyes, staring at him. Perhaps she would smile politely, and then turn and run a mile. Or she might report him. On the other hand, considering her own brush with a floating creature that she couldn’t explain, she might just believe him. It made no difference, either way. As soon as he had resolved this case, he would never see her again.

  She would go back to living in her enclosed world, where all that mattered was performing for rich people. And he would go on his way, too. On to another case, or out of the city entirely? He supposed it depended on how long this case took. But if it was still going past his birthday—and it may—then he would be forced to leave, and never look back. Plunge headlong into his destiny.

  His heart contracted a little. In another life…in another world…could he and Maya have explored what lay between them? He knew that she felt it, too. It was there, in every turn of her eyes when she gazed at him. She had shivered like a leaf in his arms today as she had told him what had happened to her. It had taken all his strength not to pull her against him and slowly unpin that tight bun on the back of her head, letting her brown hair fall down her shoulders in all its glory…

  He shivered at the thought, even though it was so hot you could crack an egg and fry it on the ground. It was a very hot summer, and the warehouse kept in the heat like an oven. He was suddenly thirsty, and getting a drink would distract him from thoughts of Maya and her hair.

  He padded down the stairs, frowning. In the kitchen, he poured himself a drink, thinking back over what she had told him.

  It was a female demon, in a long nightdress. That was a very specific description, but where could it lead him? He thought of the ghost stories she had mentioned that were a part of the building. A woman who haunted the hallways. And a man who always appeared with a wolf.

  Evan slowly put down the glass of water. He had thought it odd at the time, when she had mentioned it. A man and a wolf. Or, a man that was a wolf?

 
It was a long shot, but he had little to go on for the moment. Perhaps he could investigate the history of the building. It was one of the oldest in Covenester, and there were always rumours and legends around historic buildings. These ghost stories might have a basis in fact, or there could be reasons why the ghost stories had sprung up.

  Or they could be true. Evan didn’t discount that possibility. He had never set eyes on a ghost, but he was a wolf shifter, and he regularly battled demons. There was probably more to this realm than even he had seen.

  But he knew that what Maya had seen was a demon, not a ghost. The leathery, grey skin gave it away, as did the wispy hair. Yes, it was most definitely a demon. The question was whether it had scuttled back to its hole after murdering the director or was it still there? And why had it done it?

  He thought of all the things that had gone wrong with the ballet company…and the other death that had occurred, in the very same room. Ariane, the dressmaker. A woman with a bad heart, apparently. Or had the dressmaker seen something that had caused her heart to suddenly stop? Fear could cause that, too.

  Yes, the more he thought about it, the more he believed the Vilgath had been at work there for quite a while. A demon, or more, were attempting to sabotage the company. It had started off with little things, but it had now progressed to murder. And who knew when it would stop?

  Evan gasped. The room. That strange costume room. It was something to do with that. Both people who had died had been found there. Why had David Wagner even been in there, and where was the chair that he had been placed on? Why had Ariane the dressmaker been found slumped over a sewing machine, when as far as he could tell it wasn’t a workspace at all?

  There was an energy in that room. He had sensed it as soon as he had walked into it. And what had Maya said, about feeling as if she were Alice, plunging down the rabbit hole? She had sensed it, too.

  Something was lurking there. And he intended to find out why.

  Chapter Six

  Maya pulled nervously at the bolero jacket. It was tight and scratched against her skin; she could feel the fibres penetrating the thin silk blouse she wore underneath. She took a deep breath, picturing the moment when she could take it off and throw it on her bed. She felt like a trussed turkey at Thanksgiving.