The Black Wolves of Boston (eARC)

by Wen Spencer

  "No, painting is not my forte, at least not walls," Decker said. "I've painted pictures. In my time, gentlemen were expected to learn to draw and paint. I suspect because if you wanted to illustrate something you had in your head, you couldn't simply find the likeness in the Sears Roebuck catalog. You needed to draw it yourself."

  Sears Roebuck?

  Joshua dug his new pens and notebooks out of the shopping bags. He wrote: paint, brushes, whatever. Watch some YouTube videos on painting a room. Pick up paint chips.

  "Paint chips?" Decker read over his shoulder.

  Joshua blushed with embarrassment as he realized that somehow he'd scooted so close to Decker that he was nearly on the man's lap. Every time he stopped paying attention to what he was doing, he ended up leaning against Decker. It was some weird werewolf reflex. At least Decker didn't seem to notice. Joshua still had Decker's phone in his jacket pocket. He pulled it out, using the movement to casually slide away from the vampire. "Samples of paint colors. I've seen them every time I've been in a hardware store with my folks. They're pieces of paper with like a zillion colors. You can take them home. See how they look in your house."

  A quick search brought up two hardware stores within a half-mile of Decker's house. "I can hit one of these tomorrow."

  "I like most greens," Decker mysteriously stated. "Not crazy about the pale mint green that was popular in the fifties, but just about anything else is good."

  "What?"

  "Your favorite color. It's green."

  "It is?" It kind of felt right and wrong at the same time.

  Decker laughed. "You got green towels. Green sheets. All the shirts you picked out were green. It's not that hard to guess."

  If it was not so hard to guess, why did he have to think about it? Was it really his favorite or was this some new werewolf preference? Why would werewolves have favorite colors?

  Was he seriously overthinking all this?

  No, he wasn't thinking enough. He had all these new weird werewolf quirks and no idea what triggered them. Decker said Joshua didn't have to worry about the full moon, but what if Decker was wrong? "After we get everything unloaded, can you show me the coal cellar?"

  "The coal cellar?" Decker must have forgotten.

  "You said---" Joshua remembered that they weren't alone. He glanced toward the cab driver, then leaned over to whisper. "You said we could use it as a cage for the wolf."

  "I don't think you'll need it," Decker said.

  "Why not?"

  "Saul arranged for me to meet with the Prince of Boston when I moved from Philadelphia. It was the only way I could have stayed in the city."

  "What was he like?"

  "I told you about how most monsters don't have an off switch? How they're always on and uncontrollable because of that? You've seen those little bitty Christmas lights, the single white bulb?" Decker pinched his fingers together to describe tiny. "That's what most monsters are like, little lights, always on. Magically. Once you feel it enough times, you'll understand more. The potential. What you see is what you get. I made the mistake of taking the prince by surprise. He looked like a normal man. Tall. Black hair. Dark brown eyes. Not particularly strong or striking looking. But then, as I startled him, he turned on his power. He didn't change, not a single hair on his head, or even the color of his eyes, but I felt like I'd just touched the surface of the sun. He controlled all of Boston and most of the state and I could feel that. There's not an inch of his territory where I could go and stay hidden. He would know. That's why Saul had to introduce me. Otherwise the prince would have sensed my presence, assumed the worst, and hunted me down."

  "So he seemed completely human---until he didn't?"

  "Yes. If you're like the Prince of Boston, you control the switch, not the moon."

  He remembered Winnie saying how Seth would check on her at night from New York City. Then there was that weirdness with the Wolf King thing that showed up at Sioux Zee's. No, he wasn't like that at all. He could be just like the legends. Decker certainly was conforming to the vampires in stories. "You go down for the count at sunrise."

  "I'm a different kind of beast entirely. You have a reflection, I don't."

  "Why is that? That doesn't make any sense."

  "Like I told you. Logic is for men. Magic is for monsters."

  14: Decker

  "I don't think this is necessary." Decker wasn't going to stop Joshua though. He knew what it was like to be scared of yourself. Or more truthfully, the monster within.

  Decker had used the vacuum on the little room after Joshua had fallen asleep the night before but coal dust still lingered on every surface.

  "This is good." Joshua stepped into the room. "I can put down my bed." He rubbed at his nose and sneezed into the crook of his elbow. "You can lock me in here."

  "I'll stay with you." Decker swung the door closed behind him.

  "I might hurt you." Joshua huddled in the corner. Scared little puppy.

  "I doubt it." Decker made sure the door was bolted tight and then went to sit beside Joshua. "I know how you feel. Well---not exactly. My curse is different. Not better. Not worse. There's no way to compare the two."

  Where was he going with this? He didn't know. He wasn't sure what to tell Joshua to make him feel better.

  His puppy leaned against him. "How did you become a vampire?"

  "I was a diviner..."

  "A what?"

  "Someone that uses a dowsing rod to find hidden objects. I could find things. I still can, not that I look often. It's one of the reasons I never bothered to clean up my house. No matter how messy it gets, I can find what I want. It's considered a gift from God. It's why the Grigori allow me to live. Why Saul believed in me. Why Elise trusts me in a limited fashion."

  "Wait. Is that how you knew where the huntsman was in the park?"

  "Yes. And it's how I found you yesterday. I had a sense that there was something I needed if I only looked for it. I zigzagged all over the Back Bay until I found you killing trees. Using my gift is a painfully slow process, which is why I needed your help to find Elise quickly."

  "Wow. That's cool." Joshua sneezed again.

  "It was a two-edged sword. I've always been able to find what I needed to live a life of ease. The gift, however, was considered by the ignorant masses to be black magic. I was hounded from one home to another. Then one day, the world changed, and I was caught up in it."

  "What changed?" Joshua scooted closer. The puppy would have had his ears perked with interest.

  "The Wolf King took residence in New York City."

  "Huh? How did that make you a vampire? I don't get it."

  "There is a basic truth about the werewolves that the Grigori hate to admit. For thousands of years, the Grigori killed all monsters, including werewolves. Despite their efforts, empires would rise and then fall into darkness, as monsters would spawn at the very heart of the capitals. Babylon was just one of many. Any time men gathered in numbers, breaches in the very fabric of reality would happen, as if the weight of so many souls in one place tore holes open and let in monsters.

  "Then one day the Grigori realized that the werewolves weren't settling in towns; villages were growing up around the wolves and becoming cities. The Wolf King and his people are guard dogs. Their very presence protects the integrity of the world. Where there are wolves, breaches are rare, and when they happen, the wolves can close them. The truth was indisputable: humans need werewolves to prosper. So the Grigori made peace with the Wolf King, and his people were allowed to multiply freely in Europe and Africa and Asia."

  "Not here?" Joshua pointed down at the cellar floor, meaning the United States.

  "The Americas had not been discovered yet. As soon as the colonies were established, the Wolf King started to tap alphas to guard the new land. He sent his wolves to Boston. Philadelphia. New York." He reached out to pat his scared puppy on the head. "See. Werewolves are good things. They keep the city safe. Everyone that can tell that you're a werewol
f knows that. You don't need to be scared."

  "Yay me." Joshua didn't sound happy. He put his head on Decker's shoulder. "There was a big guy at Sioux Zee's. He was scared of me."

  "People are scared of police too."

  Joshua sneezed loudly. In that split second of noise, he transformed. A wolf sat in his place. A very small black wolf puppy.

  Decker stared at it in surprise. "That---that is unexpected."

  The puppy whimpered in distress. Quiet at first and then growing in volume as it picked up its paws and stared at them.

  "Hush. Hush. You're fine." Decker scooped him up. "You're fine. I'm here. I won't let anything happen to you. You're fine."

  Something was very, very wrong. Decker knew that magic didn't follow the rules of science, but it seemed inconceivable that a hundred-and-twenty-pound man could become a twenty-pound puppy.

  But he couldn't let Joshua realize that.

  "There. See. You're fine." He couldn't think of any other words of comfort. He was a little too freaked out to think of anything. "Hush. I won't let anything happen to you."

  Whimpering, the puppy burrowed into the space between Decker's arm and chest until his entire head was tucked into Decker's armpit.

  "It's okay." Decker petted the puppy, trying to think of something sane and reasonable to say. After several minutes of silence, he took up his story. He might as well distract Joshua with his own tale of woe.

  The Wolf King sent alphas to the Colonies. The prince that he sent to New York had been killed and his heir wasn't strong enough to take the alpha. Decker probably shouldn't mention that wolf or the following massacre.

  "But---for some reason---the Wolf King decided that he would come to New York City himself. It was like rats fleeing a sinking ship; every monster abandoned its lair and fled before the Wolf King. I was on the road between New York and Philadelphia, running once again from people who thought I was the devil in flesh, when a wave of real monsters washed over the land. I'd stopped at an inn for the night. A vampire attacked in a feeding frenzy. Each person it fed on became a monster like it. It was a madness that grew like a fire, consuming everything until I was the last one alive in a small attic room. Only I wasn't like everyone else in the inn; I had my rare and magical gift. I could channel power. So when the monster tore open a hole into that monstrous realm, I could choose to shape the power that flowed out into a weapon or I could, for a time, close it off. I killed the vampires in the inn. God protected me---in that the last monster had fled into a coal cellar just like this one. When the sun rose and I fell senseless, I was hidden away until night---"

  Decker paused as he realized a flaw in his plan that could be catastrophic. He'd assumed that Joshua was needlessly afraid and they'd leave the coal cellar shortly. He hadn't counted on Joshua changing and not being able to revert to human.

  This could be a problem.

  Joshua had never seen Decker senseless. Saul had described it as very unsettling. Joshua wasn't going to be able to cope with seemingly dead Decker on top of being stuck a puppy. Nor did Decker want to leave the coal cellar before Joshua had figured out how to change back. Despite his cavalier speech, he knew things went wrong with newborn werewolves. If Joshua lost control, the Grigori would come hunting his puppy, treaty or no treaty.

  "Enough about me," Decker said. "We've determined that yes, you can become a wolf. Let's work on getting back to being a human."

  For several minutes all he got out of Joshua were muffled whimpers. Decker couldn't tell if he was trying to change back, trying to talk, or just committed to freaking out in a very typically Joshua way (which thankfully was a very Zen peaceful but noisy way). Decker found himself thinking of funny things that the boy might be saying.

  "Why am I so tiny? This is so unfair! Not only am I a stuck being a werewolf, I'm a puppy."

  It did not help that as Decker thought "puppy" Joshua wailed something that sounded remarkably close to the word.

  "You're a very cute puppy," Decker said.

  Joshua went absolutely still and silent.

  Decker's sense of humor was going to get him killed one of these days. Teasing a werewolf while locked in a small dusty room was probably not a wise thing to do. He scrambled to think of a way to salvage that comment. "To me, you have always been a cute little puppy." No, that probably wasn't the right thing to say either.

  Joshua sneezed again.

  Decker found himself three feet off the ground with the head of a wolf the size of a draft horse wedged under his arm. He dangled there, too surprised to move. Not good.

  With horses, you always wanted to control their head. He tightened his hold on Joshua's head.

  The wolf shook him loose. Joshua sat back onto his haunches and banged his head on the coal cellar's roof. In the drift of loosened dust, Joshua lifted a paw the size of a dinner platter up to stare at it intently.

  "This---this is actually a step forward." Decker lay on the floor, carefully not moving. "You've managed to transform again. So let's try for a human or at least human-sized."

  Joshua sneezed. He became a human-sized wolf.

  "Good! That's progress---"

  Joshua sneezed again and became the draft horse wolf.

  This was going to be a long night.

  * * *

  For the next two hours, Joshua was every imaginable size of wolf. Only his coloring stayed constant. Decker was starting to despair that Joshua would ever get back to normal. They were lucky that it was November and the nights were long. They still had hours before dawn, but time was running out.

  Plan B. Set up the house so his puppy could survive the day without supervision.

  "Enough of this! Let's go upstairs and clear the kitchen and unpack the new refrigerator and microwave."

  Joshua was currently a draft-horse-sized wolf. He'd bumped his head on the ceiling again and was rubbing the spot between his ears with his giant paw. He paused to stare at Decker. "Hrm?"

  Decker unbolted the door. "Since your bedroom is cleared, the next logical room to work on is the kitchen. I'm fairly sure there's nothing in the kitchen that I want. I should make sure before you pitch everything out. We have a few hours yet. We can clear it in no time."

  It seemed like a brilliant plan until he reached the kitchen and picked up the first armful of clutter. There was no good place to put it down. He picked his way through the downstairs carrying the armful. Should he take it upstairs?

  Giant wolf Joshua appeared with something in his teeth. He dropped it on the floor in front of Decker. It was an orange box that read: Hefty Extra Strong Large Trash Drawstring Bag.

  "Ah, I see. Put it in a bag and then---then---put it outside until the dumpster comes. Yes. Very good." Decker puzzled his way through opening the box. When did boxes get this complicated? Inside was a thick roll of plastic. Individual bags peeled off the roll like layers of an onion. "How ingenious."

  He fought the large slick piece of plastic looking for the opening. "I know there has to be an opening! The picture shows a drawstring bag! One of these sides must be it! No. No. No. No. No. Oh come on, one of them has to be the right one. There! Finally!"

  Wolf puppy Joshua darted in and out between his legs, shoving stray items into the bag as Decker filled the first one. After they'd filled a bag, giant-size Joshua would carry it outside. (Decker didn't think it was wise for Joshua to leave the house but he had no way to stop that big a wolf. Luckily the driveway was shielded from view in the back.) They cleared the floor first and then worked on the counter.

  What did living creatures need? Decker was no longer sure. Food. That was the easy one. Unearthing the kitchen sink reminded him that water was another must.

  The faucets were smooth round knobs that the wolf wouldn't be able to turn without breaking. They'd gotten drinking glasses. Decker could fill them and sit them on the floor. The puppy could lap water from the glasses but not the draft-horse-sized wolf.

  Decker eyed the toilet bowl in the downstairs bathroom. Most l
ikely Joshua wouldn't want to drink from that. The toilet also brought to question how the wolf was going to relieve itself. Water in meant urine out.

  They could lay down papers. They had rooms full of newspaper.

  The puppy wrestled with the six-pack of paper towels.

  "Here. I'll do that." Decker ripped open the plastic.

  The puppy jumped up onto the counter beside the sink. It looked at him and then the faucet.

  Decker put the paper towels on the cleared island. He went to the sink and gave the faucet an experimental twist. The pipes groaned. After a minute of coughing and rattling, rusty brown water poured out into the sink. "Oh. Dear. Maybe it will get better if we let it run. If you want some water, I can get a glass from the bathroom."

  The puppy covered its eyes with its paws.

  "What?" Decker cried.

  The puppy sighed and looked pointedly at the paper towels abandoned on the island.

  "I-I-I don't understand." Decker picked up the paper towels. "Do you want the paper towels or water?"

  Joshua jumped off the counter and turned into a human. "You truly have no clue on how to clean, do you?"

  Decker froze. Should he point out that Joshua was finally a boy? No. "People cleaned for me."

  "How did you live alone for fifty-seven years without cleaning?" Joshua took the paper towels from him. "I'm seventeen and I know how! I started washing pots and pans when I was in first grade."

  "When you take eating out of the equation, there is little need to clean."

  "What about your clothes?"

  "I do laundry. I wash my bed linens. I have a shower for when I get ichor or dirt on my body. Otherwise---I'm not a human, Joshua. I'm a magical being."

  "If you say you're sparkly clean, I'm going to smack you."

  "I do not sparkle." Decker leaned against the island to watch Joshua dampen a towel and systematically wipe down the counters. He could not stop smiling. His boy was going to be fine.

  15: Joshua

  Another late, late, late night with Decker. Another nightmare. Another morning with memories returning from the night he was attacked. This time of how the wolf stood over him, biting down hard, teeth grinding against bone, and then the sense of being lost in a flood, dark, hot and wild.