A long, quiet look later, he asks, “And she's told you that?”
“No.” I'm reluctant to make the admission, but I'm not going to lie to him. “It's pretty obvious, though.”
He doesn't say anything in response, even after contemplating the ceiling for several moments.
“Tod, if you don't ask for her forgiveness, you'll never know if she can give it or not.”
More silence...
“You owe her the apology at least, don't you think?”
“Yeah.” He takes a deep breath. “And you honestly think there's a chance she'll forgive me?”
“More than a chance.” I smile softly as he gathers his courage and starts toward the door.
“You weren't supposed to agree with me about the idiot thing, you know.”
I laugh. “I wouldn't want you to think too much of yourself.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I frown as Tod stops in his tracks and turns abruptly, facing toward the exit to the parking structure – the exit to outside, not the one that leads into the nice, warm rec room. “She'll be in fox form,” I point out. “You can wait until morning, can't you?”
He grunts. “She can hear me just as well with furry ears as with hairless ones.”
“Yeah, but...” Shaking my head, I realize I'm not going to get anywhere arguing with him.
“If I stop,” he whispers, “I'm going to lose my courage.”
“No, you won't. Don't underestimate yourself.”
Then again, looking into his eyes is like peering into a vortex of fear. He's absolutely terrified.
“But, come on.” I give him a gentle smile and take the lead. “We'll find her.”
The wind hits us when we step from the parking garage, and I can only hope Tod realizes how good a friend I'm being going along for moral support like this when all I want to do is run up to my room and hide under the comforter for a few days.
Approaching the building the foxes use as their base during the full moon, we slow to a stop as a suspicious shape far too large to be a fox breaks away and rushes to us. Tod hisses at the leopard as it comes to rest at our feet. “What are you doing here?”
It's a snow leopard, a gorgeous animal with silky fur of black and white, a lithe body, and the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. I shush Tod. “Seth isn't here to hunt, you idiot.”
Despite the subzero temperature, I slide my glove off, unable to resist seeing if Seth's fur is really as soft as it looks. Running my fingers briefly through it proves that, yes, it is. As I soak in the warmth of him, he closes his eyes and purrs.
Tod lets out an annoyed grumble. “It's alright. He's here to flirt with you. Fine.” He starts to walk around us, but Seth leaps away from me, blocking him. His eyes dart about frantically.
“I think he's trying to tell us something.”
Tod gives me a droll look as I slip my glove back on. “Think it has anything to do with Timmy or wells?”
Seth snarls. Even recognizing that he's my friend and highly unlikely to eat me, the sight of it sends my fight or flight instincts into hyperdrive. It's all I can do to stand here, and I'm bouncing from side to side as I do it.
Closing his eyes again, the massive cat takes a deep breath.
He starts to shimmer, shifting back into his human form despite the fact that it is obviously causing him pain. Hunched over, he directs his fevered gaze to Tod. “Aliah. Not back. Lost the trail the same place you did. Couldn't find another.”
Tod doesn't even bother to curse before he sprints into the woods. So I let out a stream of expletives long enough for the both of us. Not just repeating the word expletive over and over, either.
Shaking and having difficulty breathing, Seth forces his head to move to me. “News gets worse. The male you. He was there.”
Oh, God. My stomach plummets sickly. I was sure before that she was just sulking, just needed time to herself. But if there's another all-were out there, she could well be in danger.
Seth is starting to shimmer. “What are–” he gets out before the change takes him and steals his ability to speak. He growls in frustration.
“I'm whatever I want to be,” I whisper. At his look of feline confusion, I take a breath of the frozen air, feeling it lance into my lungs and using the pain of it to focus myself.
Fox. Leopard. Mammoth. Wolf.
I leave out the truly tiny animals of my usual demonstration, not feeling any particular need to force Seth to control his hunting urges. I leave myself as a wolf and start to unsteadily trot toward the woods. I see what Warren was getting at in telling me that turning into something is different than being able to effectively be that thing. But I'm warmer with fur, and I have to get used to it some time.
Seth bounds in front of me, pulling his lips back in warning. Guess he's a member of the Michaela-can't-take-care-of-herself camp.
Huffy, I move my eyes from Seth to the trees. This is silly. If Aliah actually is in trouble, I can help her a lot better than Tod can. There's no proof beyond my fear that she's in danger, but I can't just pretend it isn't possible. Until I lay eyes on her and see she's alright, I'm going to assume she needs me.
I could try to debate this with Seth, but Aliah may not have the time for me to waste. My solution is heavy handed, but I don't have time to think of anything subtle. I change into a dragon and leap over the leopard.
My blood starts to freeze before I can even bunch my muscles together. I don't know what to do with the wings, and the tail throws me all off balance. But I make it past Seth, even if I don't do it gracefully.
As soon as my feet touch the ground, I shift back to lupine form. The wolf's body suddenly seems a lot more familiar than it did. At least it's warm blooded. That alone makes it less alien than the dragon.
I catch up to Tod as he stares at the place we lost Aliah's trail earlier. “She's hurt,” he tells me when I come to a stop. Seth's right behind me, glowering.
Nodding, I sniff at the ground. It doesn't do any good though; the fresh snowfall has taken away any hint of scent. I turn human so I can talk. “How do you know she's hurt?”
“I just do.”
I agree with him, even though I admit it could just be our fear that lends us certainty.
“I can get through,” I tell him. “Then be something big enough to help her. I'll bring her to you.”
“I'm coming.”
“No!” I yell, halting the shimmer around him as he starts to shift. “I need you human when I get back.”
His mouth opens to argue, but I don't hang around for it.
Becoming a ferret, I dart into the trees. Seth's jaws snap shut behind me, although whether he's making a statement or honestly trying to stop me by whatever means necessary, I don't know. I suppose it's even dimly possible he's decided he's hungry.
Wiggling along in my weasel form, I get through the dense trees and find myself in a little gulch. There doesn't seem to be any way into it except for the way I came.
The clouds shift, and the moon shines brightly across the landscape.
Make that, I amend, two ways in: through the trees, and from that cave over there.
I stay little as I approach the hole in the rock face. If the male version of me is watching, there's no reason to make sighting me easier than it has to be. Although, I don't know why he would be watching for me. If he'd sent some sort of ransom note to the school telling me to come here, there would have been more people waiting on me when I got home.
Timidly, I creep from the sparse protection of the gulch into the cave. A small fire is lit well inside of it, far enough in that it wasn't visible from outside. Unless Aliah managed to shift her way back into her human body while injured and distressed on a full moon, someone else has been here recently.
Heart hammering, I urge myself forward and nearly gag when I get a whiff of the hole in the rock face. The cave absolutely reeks of the male all-were. The smell is strong enough I can't even begin to guess when the last time he passed throug
h here was. He could be here now for all my nose knows.
But my eyes know he isn't.
There's a fire, and there's a tiny bundle of white fur. Tied to a stake, Aliah lays on the on the ground looking more like a discarded winter hat than a living fox.
Shifting human, I run to kneel beside her. “Aliah?” I ask, trying to tell if she's breathing. Please, God, let her be breathing!
Her dirty white body jerks just before the vixen's eyes slit open. A small whimper answers me, and I struggle not to cheer. “It's okay,” I whisper, taking my coat off to lay it on the ground. While I'm thanking God for things, I should toss in some gratitude that my changes leave me clothed when I resume human form. I have no idea how I'd handle this situation naked. “I have you.”
Aliah hisses and squeezes her eyes shut as I lift her, then place her gently on the coat. Tucking the jacket around her like the blankets I used to wrap around my toy dolls, I whisper to her that everything's fine now and that Tod's waiting for her. “In fact, if I don't get you back soon, he's probably going to start ripping apart the forest trying to find you.”
Gently, wincing at her hiss of pain, I lift the bundle and start to walk toward the cave exit. The only way back to school is the same way I got in here, and I don't know how I am going to carry Aliah through. Perhaps I can rig some sort of sling and drag the coat behind me? Would that hurt her too much?
It hits me along with the blast of arctic wind that attacks me at the cave entrance that there has to be another way to get out of here. The trees were disturbed by Aliah, but no one else had passed through them in a long time.
Silently thanking Warren's tutoring, I look around for signs of passage from the cave. It's hard to see with the clouds passing over the moon at random intervals, and my eyes, while better in the dark than a normal human's, aren't as good at night as most animals'. The snow looks flat, and the trees blend into the sky.
I spot a broken branch hanging limply from a tree a short way from us, and I inch toward it on unsure feet. The clouds between me and the moon get thicker, diminishing my vision further. Dammit.
Hoping I can pull this off, I put Aliah down. “I can't see,” I explain, taking off my scarf and tying it around her to form a sort of carry strap. I shift to wolf and gently take the scarf into my mouth.
I can't say the wool tastes good, but it holds.
Slowly, trying not to jostle the injured fox more than absolutely necessary, I edge along the floor of the gulch, the snow tickling coldly at my legs. Past the broken limb, I find enough other clues to lead me to a pass that winds gently upward.
Sadly, the pass is filled with huge boulders.
I stop to think for a few minutes. The other all-were comes this way, so I can do it. If I can just figure out how.
What form does he use?
If he flies, then I'm out of luck. I don't think I can learn to fly while carrying my friend. But there could be another way... I just need an animal known for leaping about on giant rocks.
I shimmy into the shape of a mountain goat, hoping I can get its balance right. In unfamiliar form and carrying a very important package, I start timidly onto the rocks.
It takes a long time, and I nearly lose my balance on a patch of ice and thus almost send us crashing down the incline to break all of our bones on more than one occasion. But with a lot of forethought and careful planning, I manage to summit the rocky pass. As I leap from the top of the last rock down onto a familiar path, I have to resist the urge to open my mouth and bleat in triumph.
I know exactly where I am now. I've passed this place several times in my walks with Warren. But since the rock behind me is taller than I am by several feet, I never knew there was anything interesting behind it.
Once again a human, I gather Aliah in my arms. Holding her tightly, I jog back to the school as fast and smoothly as I can. Well before I think he has a hope of hearing me, I start to yell for Tod. Seconds later, he breaks out of the woods, running toward us in a heated sprint.
He beats Seth. And leopards are not sloths.
“Aliah?” he rasps, moving aside my coat enough to reveal her face. Her eyes slit open, and when he puts his hand against her cheek she leans into it. “Oh, God, Aliah,” he whispers, reaching to take her from me. “How bad is she hurt?”
I swallow. “Several gashes. Some broken ribs I think. And he was keeping her by a fire, but she was pretty cold even before we left the cave.”
Holding her against him, stroking her fur gently, he walks toward the house, murmuring to her about antibiotics and painkillers. It's a sign of his anxiety that he doesn't even bother to ask me where she was or who it was that had her. Right this second, he honestly doesn't care.
Mr. Atherton cares plenty when he finds out though. He practically froths with how much he cares.
“One of my students was missing and nobody bothered to report it? Do we have to institute a roll call?”
Tod and I don't say anything.
“And what were you thinking going after her yourselves? The creature out there is dangerous! And you just waltzed into his lair without weapons or backup or even common sense!”
“He is dangerous,” I reply, fighting to keep my voice level. “And he had one of my best friends. I'm the only person here who could have gone in and saved her.”
I've told everyone the whole story, recited it while we were watching Aliah get her stitches. She's sleeping now, knocked out by the promised pain meds. It's a miracle Mr. Atherton managed to drag Tod away from her long enough to be yelled at.
“You are not the only person who could have gotten her,” Mr. Atherton corrects, his teeth grinding against each other as he forces the words out. “Any fully matured fox could have done it.” He punctuates this with a glare at Tod that clearly conveys belief that my den father does not fall anywhere near this category. “They could have taken flashlights and climbing gear and gotten out just fine.”
“If they knew what to expect,” I agree. “But, you were there when we got her inside. You heard the nurse as clearly as I did. Aliah was sliding deeper into shock. A half hour's delay would have killed her.”
His look is not swayed. “You didn't know that, Michaela.”
“I knew she was in danger.”
“No,” he argues. “You feared she was.”
“And you?” He turns his head to Tod. “You're Michaela's den father, you're supposed to protect her. Part of that is keeping her from doing stupid things to put her life in danger.”
Tod nods. “You're right. And I don't have an excuse. I'll tell my grandmother to appoint a new den leader.”
“That's not fair,” I blurt. “And you do too have an excuse!”
He smiles faintly. “I had a motive. That's different. And I had no right to risk your life to save her.”
“Like you could have stopped me!” I stand, angry and fed up with all of this. My glare turns to Mr. Atherton. “Tod didn't endanger me. I endangered me. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat.”
The wolf watches me for several seconds, not saying anything. “Go to bed, Michaela.”
“What?”
He repeats himself, very slowly. “Go... to... bed... Michaela.”
“Fine. I'm exhausted anyway.”
“And Michaela?”
I stop with my hand on the office door, but refuse to turn around. “What,” I growl through clenched teeth.
“You're not to leave this building until further notice.”
My jaw drops and my head snaps to look behind me.
Mr. Atherton's gaze is firm and tense. Something dangerous lurks behind it, leading me to choose stomping away before I say something that will help me determine what it is.
Grounded! He grounded me! I can't believe it. I haven't been grounded since I was nine. The closest I've come was when my dad wouldn't let me go to homecoming freshman year because I cut class to go to the mall, and I told him I was looking for a dress instead of admitting I just couldn't stand to stay in school th
at day after I broke up with my boyfriend at lunch. I didn't even want to go to the stupid dance because I wouldn't have had a date.
Not that I have anywhere I want to go tonight either, but it's the principle of the thing.
Fuming, I sit down at my computer and open my email. I would love to write to someone about this, but what would I say? Even leaving out the shape changing, reporting that I am now locked away because I rescued my friend from the clutches of an evil killer would probably raise eyebrows, and possibly questions regarding my sanity.
Of Fur and Ice Page 26