Artemis Lupine- The Complete Series

by Catherine Banks

  I was almost asleep when I heard two gun shots. Bret jumped up, and we ran to the window to see what was going on. Billy stood a few feet in front of Bret’s house facing away from us and aiming his gun into a clump of trees. I stared into the trees and saw the reflection of amber eyes.

  Wolves.

  I ran to the door, flinging it open and ran outside. The wolves had started to walk towards Billy, snarling. I ran in front of Billy and put my arms out, “No. You three leave.”

  The wolves stopped and stared at me. I instantly recognized the three wolves as the ones that had been around the area today. They looked extremely large, but were always too far away for me to be able to tell. The middle one was obviously the alpha and took a step forward so I mimicked him by taking a step towards him. Billy started to grab me, but I waved him away.

  Bret whispered loudly, “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to show the wolf that he is not dominant to me. I am alpha here, not him,” I answered quietly.

  Bret groaned. “Great, you’re going to make the wolf attack you.”

  I shook my head at him then squared my legs and stared straight in the wolf’s eyes. He stared back at me, unwilling to be seen as submissive. One of the other two wolves nudged the alpha in his side. The alpha’s hackles rose and he snarled. I stayed perfectly still and for once wished I had a tail so I could show that I wasn’t scared of him. The other wolf nudged the alpha and the strangest thing happened…the alpha sighed. The alpha snapped his teeth at me and then ran off into the trees with his two pack members.

  I turned to Billy and saw the white of his face. “What’s wrong? They weren’t really going to hurt you, Billy.” I reached out to him and he backed away.

  “Don’t touch me, Artemis,” he said quickly as he backed up.

  I stared at him in shock. “Why are you acting like you are afraid of me? All I did was use some of my nerdy research to show the head wolf that I wasn’t afraid of him. I did it to save your life. It’s not like I talked to the damn wolf.”

  Bret stood beside me and stared at Billy. “Dude, what is your problem?”

  Billy shook his head. “You can’t expect me to believe that you just used common wolf knowledge to show you were tougher. You had to have been communicating with him.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Right, communicate with a wolf. Have you lost your mind?”

  He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Artemis, but I can’t see you anymore.” I frowned at him and was about to say something when he tossed me a large box. “Here, now you don’t need mine.”

  I stared at the box and read the label. “Pay as you go cell phone. Uh, thanks.”

  He nodded and ran down the street away from us. Bret folded his arms across his chest. “No wonder the wolf was going to eat him. Billy’s a puss.”

  I huffed a laugh and walked back inside the house, opening the cell phone box as I went. I put the phone together and plugged it in so that I could use it to call Koda tomorrow. Hopefully he would answer. Bret turned on the news channel, and we laid back down on the couch under the afghan. I sighed in contentment against his arm as my body warmed back up.

  The monotone news reporter came on the channel looking as somber as ever. “What I am about to show you is very disturbing. If you have small children or sensitive individuals, you should have them leave the room.” I looked back at Bret, and he shrugged, staring at the TV.

  “A cell phone caught footage of an attack in London. We aren’t sure how the video got to the internet, but sources believe the boy had set his phone to automatically send when he was done recording. Please, brace yourselves for what you are about to see.” A new grainy video came on the screen showing a dark London night where two men were surrounded by people as they prepared to fight. Just as one of the men arched back to throw his punch two of the people in the circle around them started screaming and were thrown across the road and into a building. Their bodies made disgustingly, loud, wet thuds as they hit the brick wall. Everyone started looking around, unable to see what was going on. Four more people in the circle disappeared screaming only to land a few blocks away on the cement, no longer breathing.

  White mist appeared around one of the fighters, and he screamed in pain before flying through the air. The second fighter and the boy with the phone started to run, but three more patches of mist appeared in front of them. They started to back up and then the mist sped forward wrapping around them and their screams stopped with a loud crack and a strange hissing sound. I turned to Bret and saw he had the same shocked and scared expression on his face. The news reporter came back on. “As you can see, it appears that the strange mist is causing these deaths, but we aren’t sure how the mist is capable of doing the physical damage we have seen done to the bodies. Some have had their throats torn out, some have had their necks broken and others have been found completely drained of blood. We will continue to keep you updated as we learn of new developments.”

  Bret turned off the television, and I shuddered against him. He wrapped his arms around me, and I wrapped the blanket tighter around us. I closed my eyes, willing them to forget the horrified expressions frozen on the victims’ faces as they were thrown through the air. What could cause this? What is the mist? I shivered at the thought of what this could mean for us and closed my eyes. Bret stood and carried me to his bedroom. He gently laid me down and climbed in bed with me. I got into our sleeping position with my head on his chest and sighed as our bodies heated up the sheets around us and the heavy comforter made me feel even more secure. Bret hummed a soft song as I fell into a deep sleep.

  The branches stung as they hit my face. I ran as fast as I could, trying to keep up with Darren. He dashed and dodged and jumped over and around trees and bushes. I started to fall behind him and yelled for him to wait, but he ignored me. I could hear the wolves getting closer and I knew I didn’t want to die. I increased my speed, but the wolves continued to gain ground. Darren was just ahead of me in a clearing and a small spark of hope seeped through me. I ducked under a low tree branch and stopped running. Darren’s body twitched and convulsed then fur sprung out from under his skin. The wet splitting sound made me cringe in disgust, but what stood in Darren’s place replaced my disgust with awe. A medium-sized brown wolf stood over Darren’s shredded human skin. I stared at this wolf and gasped as its eyes turned to me. “Dad?” The wolf nodded and then bound away as the wolves following us pounced on top of me.

  I screamed and sat upright. I looked around and realized I was safe in Bret’s bed. He opened one eye and looked at me sleepily. “Dream?” he asked with a yawn. I nodded. He pulled me back down and hugged me against him. “’S alright. I’m here.”

  I relaxed against him and tried to shake off the bad feeling. I wasn’t sure I was alright. It was just a dream. Darren can’t become a wolf. That’s crazy. I repeated it a few times, making myself firmly believe what I said and closed my eyes.

  “Artemis. Artemis honey, wake up,” Bret whispered in my ear.

  I groaned. “Five more minutes.”

  He laughed softly. “Breakfast is ready.”

  I inhaled and smelled bacon and eggs. I licked my lips and sat up. “Well, let’s go.” I jumped out of the bed and jogged to the kitchen. I stopped in the entryway and gasped. “You cleaned?”

  He walked past me and smiling. “I knew it bothered you, so I cleaned.”

  I looked around the immaculate kitchen and smiled. “It’s great Bret. I can’t believe you did such a good job. I’m impressed.”

  He bowed at the waist and draped a hand towel across his arm. “A table, milady?” I curtsied and walked to the small dining table, where he pulled out a chair for me and I sat down in it. He laid the hand towel across my lap and pushed my seat in.

  I inhaled the smell of the delicious looking food and licked my lips. He sat across from me, and I started shoveling food onto my plate and groaned in happiness when I saw the homemade waffles. I drowned all of my food in syrup and butter and star
ted eating. I ate slowly, enjoying the food and chewing thoroughly. Darren sighed behind me and I growled. I turned around, and he smiled at me. “Guess her eating your food slow means she likes it more than mine.”

  Bret shrugged and I glared at him mouthing, “Traitor.”

  He rolled his eyes at me then smiled at Darren. “Come sit down. We just started eating.”

  Darren sat down next to Bret and looked at my plate. “I can see that.”

  I rolled my eyes at him and kept eating. Darren quietly spooned food on his plate while I started to eat my food faster.

  Bret cleared his throat. “The wolves were back again.”

  Darren stopped moving and stared at me. “What happened?”

  I ignored him and kept eating.

  Bret sighed again. “They were being aggressive to Billy and he shot at them, but he apparently missed. Artemis ran out and yelled at them to leave and the head one the?” Bret turned to me. “The alphy?”

  I sighed and set my fork down. “The alpha. The alpha male took a step forward and tried to show dominance to me and I did it right back to him. He was contemplating what to do when his two pack mates nudged him and I swear to God he sighed.”

  Darren frowned. “Sighed?

  I nodded. “Yes, he sighed and then he snapped his teeth at me and they left.”

  Darren groaned and put his head in his hands. “Oh, no. He snapped his teeth at you?”

  I nodded, and he groaned again.

  “Shit! I knew this would happen one day, but why now? Dammit!”

  I stared at him, frowning. “What are you going on about?”

  He looked up slowly at me and sighed. “Nothing.”

  “Why are you being so secretive all of a sudden?” I asked, pounding a fist on the table. Darren ignored me, eating more of his food. Apparently, this was a battle I couldn’t win right now. “Fine, be that way. I’ll be leaving after I finish eating.” Bret started to eat, faster and I waved my hand at him. “I’m going alone.”

  He sighed. “You shouldn’t go alone with the wolves out.”

  Darren scoffed. “She’ll be fine. They won’t hurt her.” We both stared at Darren and he shrugged. “She showed him she was dominant. If he wanted to hurt her, he would have done it then.”

  “He’s right, Bret. Wolves aren’t smart enough to plan a later attack.”

  Darren scoffed again and rolled his eyes. He saw us looking at him and resumed eating.

  I shoveled the rest of my food into my mouth and walked to the plugged-in cell phone. I waved at Bret and Darren. “I have a cell phone if you need to reach me. I’ll be back for lunch.” I handed Darren the piece of paper I had written the phone number on.

  Darren frowned at my bandaged hand. “What happened to your hand?”

  I pulled my hand away and cradled it against my chest. “Nothing.”

  I ran out of the house carrying the phone in my pocket. I ran through the town ignoring the younger boys’ calls and the stares of Billy and his group of friends. I knew by now he had told them what a freak I was for being able to communicate with the wolves. Boys were so dumb sometimes. I knew I would definitely have no friends when Bret left and that actually made me sad. I sighed and increased my speed, pushing my limits to get to the lake as fast as possible. When I finally got to the lake, I was thankful to find no one there. It was too early in the morning for anyone to want to try to swim. I sat down on the dock at the very end so I could dangle my legs in the water. I took out the cell phone and the piece of paper with Koda’s number on it and took a deep cleansing breath. I quickly punched in the numbers and hit send.

  The phone rang four times before someone answered. “Hello?”

  I stopped breathing for a second then exhaled. “Koda?”

  Koda sighed. “Artemis.”

  I nodded then realized he couldn’t see me. “Yeah, how’d you know?”

  He laughed. “Only four people have this number and two are with me and the other is a man so it kind of narrowed it down. What’s up? Are you alright?”

  I sighed. “No, I need to ask you some questions.”

  He was silent on the other end for a full minute before finally talking again. “Ask and I’ll see if I can answer or not.”

  “Why am I dreaming about your friend?” I asked quickly before I lost my courage.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked softly.

  “I’ve been having these weird dreams and the man that was with you has been in them. I have had them for the past week and a half.”

  He whispered, “Exactly how many days?”

  I thought back to when I had the first one and answered, “Ten days.”

  He groaned. “Shit. How do you know it was my friend and not just you dreaming about someone who looks like him?”

  I asked, “Is his name Ares?”

  Koda went silent again. I couldn’t even hear him breathing. His voice boomed back making me pull the receiver away from my ear. “What happened in the dreams? Tell me every little detail!”

  “Calm down,” I said into the phone.

  He growled. “I don’t have time to be calm. Now answer my questions.”

  I quickly explained my dreams to him.

  He groaned softly. “Hold on one minute.”

  “Alright,” I said with a sigh. He talked quietly away from the phone, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. I heard a man with a thick British accent talking back to him, but still couldn’t understand what they were saying. I kicked my feet around in the water as I grew impatient.

  Koda came back on. “Alright. I can’t really say anything to you except that they are just dreams.”

  “Why are you being so secretive with me?”

  “It’s your father’s fault. If he had told you about us, there wouldn’t be a problem. Shit, you would probably be with us right now.”

  I felt my breath whoosh out of my lungs and tried to think about what he had just said.

  Koda grunted. “Shit. That was too much information.”

  I inhaled and asked, “Is your friend’s name Ares?”

  Koda groaned. “Yes, that’s all I’m going to say though.”

  I nodded. “Fine. Well I did have another dream last night as well.”

  Koda sighed in exasperation. “Tell me.” I explained the dream about my father and he sighed again. “You’ve been in contact with wild wolves.”

  It wasn’t a question, but I answered anyways. “Well, sort of. There was a group of three wolves at the lake and I swore one of them looked just like the wolf in my dreams that turned into Ares and I just felt compelled to go to him. Well, his other two pack mates pushed him away. Then, another time the same group of wolves were being aggressive, and I showed the alpha a sign that I was dominant and he was debating what to do when his pack mates nudged him and I swear I heard him sigh. Then they left.”

  Koda scoffed. “He sighed. You know it’s not very smart to show an alpha dominance when you aren’t.”

  “What should I have done? Let him eat Bret’s friend?” I said defensively.

  He laughed. “It might have been funny.”

  “The asshole would have deserved it. He thought I was communicating with the wolves. How stupid is that?”

  “Look, Artemis. I can’t really tell you much and I’m sorry for that. I do have a feeling that we will be seeing you soon though.”

  “I have two more questions.”

  He groaned. “What?”

  “Do you know what the white mist is and if it is going to come here?” I asked.

  He exhaled. “You have to keep this completely secret. Even from your friend, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  He whispered quickly, “I do know what the mist is and I promise it will not come for your town and you will be perfectly safe. Consider the wolves and your dreams a good omen.”

  I sighed as the heavy weight was lifted from my shoulders. “Okay. One more thing. Why does silver burn my skin?”

  K
oda spoke in another language fast and loud. I assumed he was cussing, but couldn’t be sure. “I can’t say anything. Just don’t touch silver. Did any of it get in your blood?”

  “No, just burned my palm.”

  “Good. Don’t worry, Artemis. Soon you will be experiencing a lot of different things. I’ll see you soon.”

  I yelled, “How soon?”

  “A few weeks probably. We’ll find out for sure next week.”

  “What happens next week?” I asked.

  He laughed. “Can’t tell you. Bye, Artemis.”

  “Wait! Why did you know that we had to leave Tahoe and how did you get out okay?”

  “Bye, Artemis,” he said again.

  “Bye, Koda.” I pressed the end button and stared at the phone in my hand. Why was everyone so secretive? I hated secrets and surprises. I remembered that Koda had said they would be coming soon and felt butterflies flip around in my stomach at the thought of seeing Ares again. “Just what I need, a crush on some older guy who won’t be interested in me.” I walked slowly back home and didn’t care how late it was when I got there. It would only take me ten minutes at the most to get home anyway. Stupid small town.

  I heard someone following me and stopped and turned around. Billy stood smiling behind me. “What is it, Billy?”

  “I’m sorry I overreacted before,” he said softly.

  I scoffed. “Right. Calling me the wolf whisperer was just a small overreaction.”

  “I just said I was sorry.” He started to move closer to me, and I held my hand up.

  “I thought you said we couldn’t see each other anymore, Billy? Why the change?”