Ulrik

by Steven E Wedel

  As evening drew on, Kiona appeared at the top of the stairs, Adam Schurz right on her heels. Ulrik rose from his place by the door and advanced on Kiona, his fangs bared, his hair bristling and a menacing growl coming from his throat. Kiona stopped, again showing more fear than she meant to.

  “I don’t think he wants you up here,” Adam said.

  “Shut up,” Kiona said, turning and descending the stairs quickly. Adam grinned at Ulrik before following his charge back down the stairs. Ulrik watched through the balcony railing as Kiona stormed out the front door of the house, Adam trailing close behind, then he lay down in front of Joey’s door again.

  The hours passed slowly. Inside Joey’s room, Ulrik could hear the boy’s steady breathing. Joey had gone to sleep, which wasn’t surprising considering the exertion he’d endured in the woods, followed by the stress of seeing his mother in pain. Down the hall, Ulrik heard Shara’s intermittent cries of agony and McGrath’s soothing voice as he talked her through the fits. Ulrik slept fitfully, waiting for the night to be over.

  As the sun came up, he rose to his feet and concentrated all his energy on changing his shape. It was still early; his cycle often kept him in wolf shape until mid-morning, but he’d found that if he absolutely needed to, he could end it a few hours sooner. He did so now, stood up, wiped sweat from his brow, then went quickly to his own room to dress. He emerged a moment later and returned to Shara’s room, rapping quickly and announcing himself. McGrath, looking even more worn out than he had earlier, opened the door. His smile was weak and cautious. He nodded.

  “Thomas McGrath,” Ulrik said, extending his hand. The other man took it, though hesitantly. “You care deeply for Shara and have protected her well. For that, I thank you. I would let past events be forgotten, if you are agreeable.”

  “Luther’s behavior had gotten out of hand,” Thomas said. “He was endangering all of us. I am sorry that he’s gone, but you did what was best for the Pack in killing him.”

  “Friends and allies, it would seem, are harder to come by than I expected. I would be glad to count you among mine.”

  “My loyalties lie there,” Thomas said, nodding toward the bed where Shara slept fitfully, her human head rolling on the pillow.

  “I understand,” Ulrik said. “Hopefully that is a loyalty we can share. I have something that will help her, I think. But first I must tend to another matter. I will be back soon.”

  Ulrik shook the man’s hand again, then left him. He went downstairs and found Kiona, Adam and Cheryl Monroe at the table. Adam looked nearly as haggard as Thomas McGrath. Ulrik pulled a chair away from the table and sat down across from Kiona.

  “What happened here?” he asked.

  Adam relayed how Kiona had apparently instructed John Redleaf to kill Andreas. “We found him buried in the yard,” Adam said. “His head was torn off his neck.”

  Ulrik shook his head. “Go on.”

  Adam then told of Kiona’s attack on him and how she’d used that opportunity to get to Shara and how Thomas McGrath had found her beating Shara about the face, screaming that the boy was hers. “I have no doubt she would have killed the Mother if McGrath hadn’t been there.”

  “Is this all true?” Ulrik asked.

  Kiona faced him with a steady gaze. “Yes, teacher, it is.”

  “Why?” Ulrik asked. “Why would you do this to me? To the Pack? Are you truly so selfish?”

  “You know my reasons. You know it is my destiny to be the Mother.”

  “It is not!” Ulrik slammed his hand down on the table to emphasize his words. Kiona did not even flinch. Ulrik looked away for a moment, then faced her again. “Were you any other person I would kill you for such treachery.”

  “You can’t let her live,” Adam said, his voice indignant. “She is a danger to us all.”

  “I cannot kill her,” Ulrik admitted. “She has been like a daughter to me for too long.”

  “I can do it,” Adam said.

  Ulrik sighed and smoothed his shaggy eyebrows as he thought. “No. Bind her, hand and foot, put her in the back of my truck and drive her to the other side of town, then release her. Cheryl will go with you. Tell Miguel that Kiona Brokentooth is exiled. If she’s seen in or around Las Sombras, she … she is to be killed,” Ulrik said. He lowered his head and rested his forehead in his hands as he finished. “Take weapons. If Kiona resists … if she attacks you when you release her … do what you must.”

  The room was quiet for a moment. Ulrik lifted his head and addressed Kiona again. “It gives me great pain to do this. Yes, I thought at one time that you were the one, the Mother, but we learned that you were not. You never accepted your fate, and that has been your downfall. If you ever approach Shara or Joey again, you will be shown no mercy.”

  Kiona made no response.

  “Go,” Ulrik said. “Take her away.”

  “What about her friend?” Cheryl asked. “Is it true he’s a bear?”

  “It is true,” Ulrik said. “His cycle will not end until tomorrow. If he returns, kill him. When you return from this task, spread instructions among the sentries that some should patrol in human form using weapons and silver. Now go.”

  Kiona did not speak as Adam fastened metal cuffs to her wrists and ankles. She kept her eyes fixed on Ulrik as she was bound, swiveling her head to keep her gaze on him as she was led out of the kitchen through the back door of the house. When the door closed, Ulrik dropped his head into his hands and wept quietly.

  Fenris

  Fenris picked up the telephone receiver on the first ring. “Fenris,” he said.

  “It’s Nick. I’m just checking in.”

  Fenris rubbed his forehead, waiting before he spoke. “Nothing to report?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Damn.” Fenris wanted to scream at the man. If you hadn’t fucked up we’d have the bitch right now! But he’d already done that. At another time, a mistake like the botched raid on Shara’s farm would have resulted in Nick Singer’s death. The man was lucky resources were stretched thin at the moment. Even thinner because of the three we lost in his failure of a raid. “What’s Woodman doing?”

  “Sitting in his house. He rebuilt the brick posts and installed a new gate,” Nick said. “He’s been to town a couple of times for construction supplies and groceries. And he went to a store for artists, but that’s it.”

  “The eavesdropping equipment I sent. You’ve used it?” Fenris asked.

  “Of course. The only sound we can pick up from the house is the television. Most of the time. We did hear him crying one night.”

  “All right.” Fenris sighed. “Okay. I don’t think he knows anything. Our timing was off in Montana. They were separated and apparently too stupid to have cell phones.” Maybe I shouldn’t have told Shara her husband was dead. He wasn’t going to admit the possibility of his own mistake. “I want you with me,” he said. “Leave Oldham there since he knows the equipment better. We’ll keep a watch for a while longer, just in case, but I don’t think Mr. Woodman is going to be much more use to us.”

  “I guess you haven’t found her yet?”

  “No. She hasn’t been seen since you fled the scene of your raid,” Fenris said, keeping his voice as level as he could.

  “Yeah. Okay. I’ll be there A-SAP.” Nick’s tone was colored with his shame.

  Fenris placed the receiver back in its cradle, his fingers curling around the body of the telephone as he thought again about how close they’d been to having Shara. If we’d had her, we could have gotten to the boy.

  He flung the telephone across the room, ripping the cord from the wall. The instrument crashed into another wall, cracking sheetrock and shattering plastic. Kelley Plant peeked into the room, saw Fenris was alone and ducked back out.

  Fenris tucked his long white hair behind his ears and stepped up to the glass patio door. He looked out on the calm blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean, put his hands behind his back and breathed deeply a few times.

  �
�Ulrik, you old bastard. You can’t keep getting all these breaks,” he said. “Something will happen to turn this war in my favor.”

  Ulrik

  “Words have power,” Ulrik said as he sat in a chair on the left-hand side of Shara’s bed. Thomas McGrath sat across from him, still looking tired, but not as haggard as he’d been earlier, having had a short nap when he learned Kiona was banished and escorted off the property. Joey sat in another chair at the small writing desk. The boy was still upset over Shara’s admonition that he stay away from Kiona, and mad that Kiona had left so suddenly, without telling him she was leaving. Ulrik let the boy believe Kiona had abandoned him. “Words have power,” he repeated. “Not as much as they once did, but they can be powerful, nonetheless.”

  Shara still slept fitfully in the bed. Though she thrashed less than she had earlier, her hands and feet remained bound. Ulrik saw that Joey kept looking at the torn sheets holding his mother’s hands against the headboard of the bed. Shara still had a fever and her shape continued to melt between human and wolf, but the changes were less abrupt.

  “You sang to her earlier,” Thomas said. “Afterward, she rested easier. What did you sing? What language was it?”

  “It is said that when the world was young the very air was still charged with the magic of creation,” Ulrik said. “Words were more powerful then. I do not know the language of that song. I do not know the meaning of the words. They have been passed down through the generations of a particular family I met in Eastern Europe. She knows the song.” He motioned to Shara. “I sang it to her when she was trapped in her wolf shape. It soothes the wolf spirit.”

  He uncapped a brown bottle he’d brought into the room with him and poured a dark, rust-colored fluid onto a white cloth. The liquid stained the cloth and he knew the color would never come out. “Hold the blanket up to cover her,” he said to Thomas. “I will apply this to her wounds. It eases the transformation.”

  Thomas lifted the blanket to keep Shara’s naked upper body hidden from her son and Ulrik applied his cloth to the wounds she had made on her chest. They had nearly healed themselves during her transformations, but he believed there were still enough open spaces that at least some of his remedy would get into her bloodstream that way. He nodded to Thomas and the man lowered the blanket.

  “Is Mom going to be all right?” Joey asked.

  “Aye, lad, she’ll be fine,” Thomas said.

  “I wasn’t talking to you,” Joey said. “I don’t know you.”

  “Hush, child,” Ulrik said, noting how the boy’s words stung Thomas. “Your mother will be well soon. Her cycle always lasted five days. Her serum may have affected that, though I doubt it. However, her cycle and my own never coincided at all before. The serum may have delayed this attempted transformation and altered the time of the month in which she will have her cycle. At most, though, she should be through this in two more days if the stomach pain she complained of was the first sign.”

  “It had to have been,” Thomas agreed.

  “I am going to put some of my elixir under her tongue,” Ulrik said. “It will be absorbed into her bloodstream faster that way. I believe applying it to the wounds on her chest has helped calm the wolf, but the wounds are nearly closed. Not enough is being absorbed into her body. Thomas, will you hold her mouth open for me?”

  Thomas nodded and gently took Shara’s chin in one hand. Hesitantly, he lifted the other hand and placed it over the upper portion of her face as he opened her mouth. She stirred a little, but didn’t wake up. Ulrik pushed the tip of a glass dropper under Shara’s tongue and squeezed the rubber bulb, pulling the dropper out as she gagged. Thomas moved his hands away. Ulrik clamped his own hand over Shara’s nose and mouth. Her eyes popped open – large, dark and wide. Ulrik kept his hand over her face until he felt her swallow.

  “Forgive me, my cub,” he said. “It was important you swallow the elixir. It will ease your body.”

  “What is it?” Shara asked.

  “It is the same elixir I applied to your wound in the hospital after I gave you the Gift. Remember?” He smiled. “I wore a doctor’s smock and entered your room when your father had left.”

  “I remember,” Shara said. She relaxed for a moment, then her eyes found Joey. Ulrik watched her expression change from annoyance to worry as she saw the fear in her son’s eyes. “It’s okay, Joey,” she said. “Mommy’s just sick.”

  “Why are you tied up?” he asked.

  “I … I guess I’ve been scratching at myself,” Shara said. She looked to Thomas, then to Ulrik. Both men nodded.

  “I wasn’t sick,” Joey said.

  “I know, baby. You’re younger. Your metabolism is different, and your weight changes faster. That probably had something to do with it,” Shara said. She looked up at the ceiling, then at Thomas. “How long have we been here?”

  “This is our second day in Ulrik’s house.”

  “Is that all?” She closed her eyes. “My hands are wolf paws again, aren’t they?”

  Ulrik saw that they were. He watched as Thomas untied the hand on his side of the bed and took the paw between his own hands.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, at least it doesn’t hurt so bad now,” she said. “It’s almost like a really bad cramp when they change. I still feel so cold, though.”

  “You have a fever,” Ulrik said.

  Shara opened her eyes and looked at him, her face hardening. “I haven’t forgiven you,” she said. “We wouldn’t be here if that woman of yours had left us alone.”

  “Joey set events in motion that would have forced you into action,” Ulrik argued.

  Shara closed her eyes again. “Jenny.”

  “The child is still missing,” Ulrik said. “You and your husband are what the media calls persons of interest in the police investigation.”

  “Chris,” Shara said. Then she opened her eyes quickly again, fixing her gaze on Joey.

  “Where’s Dad?” the boy asked.

  Shara looked to Thomas, who shook his head. She turned to Ulrik.

  “No,” Ulrik said.

  She nodded, then looked to Joey again. “I’m not sure where he is, Joey.”

  “Is he coming here?”

  “I – I – ” Shara’s gaze faltered. “I don’t know.”

  “Tell me, my cub, when did your pains begin?” Ulrik asked, hoping to change the subject. Shara turned to him and he saw the gratitude in her face.

  “The day before we got here,” she said. “That’s what I said, right?” She looked to Thomas for confirmation.

  “Yes.” He nodded.

  “Who is he?” Joey asked, pointing quickly to Thomas.

  “He’s … a friend,” Shara said. “He helped me get here.”

  “Did he tie your hands up?”

  “Yes. I think so,” Shara said. “But he did it so I wouldn’t hurt myself. He’s a werewolf, too.”

  Joey looked at Thomas for a long moment, then returned his attention to his mother. “Do you like him better than Dad because he’s a werewolf?”

  Ulrik noted the moment of shocked surprise as the question, then saw Shara’s expression melt to one of resigned sadness.

  “No, Joey,” she said. “Don’t say things like that.”

  Joey threw himself back in the chair and crossed his thin arms over his chest. “Everyone’s always telling me what to do. Except Aunt Kiona. She was nice to me. When is she coming back?”

  “Oh, Joey … I’m too tired for this,” Shara said.

  “Yes, you need to rest,” Ulrik said. “Perhaps Joey and Thomas would like to go to the kitchen and make lunch.”

  “I don’t wanna,” Joey said.

  “Then perhaps you should go to your room and wait for lunch,” Ulrik said. The boy started to protest. His mouth puckered and his eyebrows came together in a sharp V, then he jumped from the chair and ran out of the room. They all heard his bedroom door slam behind him. Ulrik saw that Shara was smiling.

  “Sorry you
stole him yet?” she asked.

  Ulrik chuckled. “No, of course not.”

  “He can be a little monster, even without the wolf,” she said. “I guess we spoiled him a little. I know I always felt guilty about making him take the shots without telling him what they were really for. He got a new toy every month because of that.”

  Ulrik studied Thomas’s hands as he held Shara’s paw. Finally he looked to the man’s eyes. “Would you leave us alone for a short while?” he asked. “I would speak to her privately.”

  “I’m not sure she wants to be alone with you,” Thomas said.

  There was an awkward silence, then Shara said, “It’ll be okay, Thomas. You look like hell, anyway. Go eat something, then get some sleep. You’ve been here beside me every time I woke up.”

  Ulrik watched the other man blush slightly before he answered. “There was once I wasn’t here,” he said, moving one hand to lightly touch Shara’s darkened temple where Kiona had hit her. She smiled back at him.

  “You pulled the bitch off me, though,” she said. “Go on. Maybe you can find me some soup.”

  “Help yourself to anything you find in the kitchen,” Ulrik said. He was relieved to see the other man take the hint and get to his feet. Reluctantly, Thomas released Shara’s deformed hand and came around the bed, gave them one final look, then left the room, closing the door behind him.

  “He is fond of you,” Ulrik said.

  “So was my husband,” Shara answered. “Most of the time, anyway.”

  “Yes. I remember. Tell me, my cub, how is the pain? It is less now?”

  “It’s not as bad. I still feel like someone is twisting my insides. Like they’re just wringing my bones between their hands. But it’s more of a constant ache that won’t go away, not the sharp pains that it was. I suppose your medicine helped with that.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “I know you’re probably right about things having to change after Joey bit Jenny. But still, how could you let that bitch steal my little boy?”

  “Kiona was not supposed to do that,” Ulrik said. “I should not have assigned her to watch over you. I thought her loyalty to me was stronger than it is. I knew that she would fight to the death to protect Joey and that is why I let her lead the operation. I am sorry.”