Argentum (P.A.W.S. Book 2)

by Debbie Manber Kupfer

  His head pounded as it elongated and his jaws became the terrible maw of the enormous tiger wolf.

  Miri staggered to her feet and stared at the monstrosity in front of her as if in a trance.

  “I have destroyed you before, Alistair,” she said. “I can do it again, and this time you will stay dead.”

  David, befuddled, didn’t understand. Where was Alistair? Andrew had told him he was dead. He felt a sudden surge of sickness soar through him. Evil thoughts and images pounded at his brain. A young boy molested and savaged by a group of beasts, a middle-aged man screaming in pain as he is eaten alive, a small girl being raped, tears streaming down her face as the rapist laughed.

  “Make it stop,” he screamed, clawing at his own face. “Please, Miri, I beg you!”

  Miri blocked out her uncle’s pleas. She understood that deep inside the horrendous shell he still existed. But the monster was only Alistair. The monster needed to be destroyed. She dredged through his memories pulling out the worst, the most diabolical. Last year she’d built a bomb, but it hadn’t been strong enough. This year’s bomb needed to have the power of a nuclear blast. She needed to finish the job this time, so that Alistair could no longer come back.

  She thought of the others down below in P.A.W.S. Maybe she could call them? Mentally she tried to contact Danny, Josh, Jessamyn, but the magical wards surrounding P.A.W.S. were too strong.

  Also, she noticed the sky was darkening. A storm was on its way. An electric bolt of lightning, a silver arrow, streaked down from the sky. Miri wished she could harness its power, but that kind of magic was beyond anything they taught at P.A.W.S.

  Still, she sifted through Alistair’s memories, selecting the most despicable. But she realized that it would not be enough; she needed more to destroy the monster. Her own body was wracked with pain now as Alistair fought back. She wasn’t sure she could do this, wasn’t sure she could bear the pain. She desperately tried to turn Alistair’s torture back on himself, but he merely magnified it and returned it to her. His laughter echoed in her head as the excruciating pain permeated every part of Miri’s body.

  “Help me, someone!” she screamed. Maybe someone will come out from P.A.W.S. They were so near the cedar tree, but no one came. She imagined them all down below, eating dinner. Danny had known she was going out for the day. No one would wonder yet why she hadn’t returned.

  David remembered his father’s eyes in those months when he was dying. To remove the charm was to die; it was as simple as that. Did he really want to die? The pain was terrible and this monstrous body was out of control, but maybe he could learn to control it?

  A strange image flittered in among Alistair’s memories. A young boy staring at his dying father. This clearly wasn’t Alistair. Miri was confused. Other images followed—beautiful wild animals roaming through jungles, the shots of the game hunters, blood, mounds of fur, and still more blood.

  Miri began to understand. David’s memories were mingling with Alistair’s. David had committed grievous sins in his life too. If Miri was to build her bomb combining the evils of David with those of Alistair, would the bomb be strong enough? It would certainly be more powerful, but did she really want to destroy her uncle as she had destroyed Alistair? She remembered her conversation with Danny. He was surprised that she didn’t want revenge on David and Cynthia, but she truly didn’t. But what if that was the only way?

  Chapter 50

  “This is not a good idea,” said Aldous, almost running to keep up with Cynthia. He was amazed at the speed she could go despite her ridiculously high heels. He guessed it was years of experience. “First,” he said, gasping for breath, “You have already sent the divorce papers. You heard what the lawyer said. You need to stay away from him. I have no idea what we gain by following him here.”

  Aldous was worried when he woke up that morning and found Cynthia had gone. Instinctively, he’d gotten in his car and driven over to Town and Country. He’d found Cynthia sitting in her sports car just outside her old house. He’d tapped on her window and she’d let him in, but her eyes hadn’t strayed from the front door.

  When he’d asked her what she was doing and why, she’d simply shrugged, like she didn’t understand it herself. Despite agreeing that she needed to divorce him, Aldous suspected that she still loved David. And now this. They waited in silence for twenty-five minutes until David walked out of the house with his briefcase and got into his car. If he noticed the red sports car parked outside, he didn’t acknowledge it.

  He was probably just going to his office. Okay, he would humor Cynthia. Aldous returned to his own car and they followed David—a little parade through the quiet suburb. But David didn’t go to work, he went back to Forest Park. Aldous cursed when he saw where he was going. He swore that if this business was ever over he would never go to this wretched park again.

  David parked in the lot by the Muny, and they did the same. Aldous worried that he would see them, but he seemed so distracted and out of sorts that he looked right through them as if they were not there.

  Slowly they followed him, keeping far enough back that he wouldn’t notice. He walked towards the Jewel Box, a route Aldous well remembered from the months he was trailing him. But then, all of a sudden, he was gone. The Jewel Box was cordoned off. Aldous suspected it had taken some damage during last month’s storms.

  They walked around it as best as they could, but saw no sign of David. Finally Aldous gave up and sat down on a bench, and Cynthia reluctantly came and sat next to him.

  “How about we go to the Visitor Center and get something to eat?” suggested Aldous.

  “No,” said Cynthia, “I want to stay here. He can’t have just disappeared.”

  So there they sat. Aldous tried to make conversation, but Cynthia didn’t respond. She seemed to retreat inside herself until about an hour later when she leapt up from the bench and walked purposefully towards a large cedar tree at the back of the Jewel Box.

  Surprised, Aldous struggled to keep up with her.

  “And second,” he said, “he’s not here . . .”

  Andrew also waited. He was in his wolf form, using the bushes as camouflage. He had lost contact with Alistair since he started the battle with Miri. He watched the two of them face off inside the bubble of wards he had created with the help of Quentin.

  It had been easy to fool Quentin. Centuries old, and still stupid. A little blood and he was already training him. Andrew understood now exactly why Alistair always kept the magician around. The key this time was to keep Quentin inside P.A.W.S. and inside Jessamyn’s bed, where he could have the most influence. Jessamyn needed to believe that Quentin had changed and truly repented.

  Miri was back in the forest clearing. Alistair was slowly walking towards her. She tried to close the channel that bound them, but could not. She could feel Alistair’s every thought and she was terrified that this time they would never leave her. Or worse, that she wouldn’t survive this encounter.

  In the distance, she could just make out two sets of cats’ eyes coming closer. The grey cat with the green eyes and the tabby with the amber eyes.

  “We’re here to help you,” they said. “You can do this.”

  “I’m not sure I can,” said Miri, tears of frustration rolling down her cheeks.

  “Use all of it,” said the tabby. “Take Alistair’s emotions, but also take mine and David’s. Together you can defeat him. There are generations bound together with the argentum in the charm David wears. Release all of us.”

  “I will try,” said Miri, beginning to understand what she needed to do.

  The forest disappeared and Miri was back in the area by the cedar tree just behind the Jewel Box. The monster stood in front of her. He had grown in her absence and was still growing, but now there was fear in his eyes.

  His eyes seemed to be glowing silver and when Miri explored their depth, she felt simultaneously all those who had worn the amulet of Max Katz. She understood now what she needed to do. She
worked backwards, gathering emotions from each, starting with David. From David she took his greed and his selfishness, the murders of all the rare and beautiful animals that were used to build his business. She added to this the deep and terrible guilt he felt from his original theft of the amulet from his father, Max.

  Miri was fascinated and horrified as the original theft played out like a scene of a play in front of her. Now she understood. She wanted to go further back to explore the histories of her grandfather and great-grandfather, but a sudden sharp excruciating pain between her temples brought her back to the present.

  “Nice try, Miriam, but as you can feel, I’m still here and I’m not going anywhere,” said the voice of Alistair.

  “That’s what you think,” retorted Miri.

  As she watched the monster, she continued sampling his emotions. She remembered the construction of the bomb she built last year from Alistair’s evil. This she recreated, but added in the negative emotions from David and her ancestors. Further and further back she went, adding lust, greed, cruelty, and petty crimes. All the sins that make up the human condition.

  The bomb was highly volatile. The slightest error in construction and she realized it could backfire and destroy her; that she could just as easily kill herself as destroy the monster, but despite the risk, she knew that she had to try.

  She visualized the bad emotions as huge silver ball. She added her own life force to the mix and then, with the last ounce of her being, flung the ball at the monster. As it made contact, the form of the creature began to crumble and Miri expected it to crumble into dust as it had done the previous year, but it did not. Instead it shrunk down in size until, on the ground, lay the spent body of David Katz.

  “Miri,” he called weakly.

  Cautiously, Miri stepped forward and looked down at her uncle lying on the grass. Was there a chance he could still survive?

  “Take the charm, Miri. Please take it,” David begged.

  Miri bent down over David. With shaking fingers, she removed the amulet. It felt warm in her hands. “I’m sorry, Miri,” said David, and his eyes closed.

  Suddenly, out of nowhere, Cynthia ran towards the cedar tree, tottering on her heels. “What have you done to him?” screamed Cynthia, rushing to her husband’s side.

  “Nothing . . . she did nothing,” said Andrew, walking out from the shadows. “He did it to himself.”

  “Come on, Miri,” he said quietly, taking her hands, “there’s nothing else you can do.” Andrew led her to the cedar tree, traced the letters P.A.W.S. on its bark, and took her back inside.

  Aldous Wrigley joined Cynthia by the body of her husband. A little later, she would take out her cell phone and call 911, but not before she had gone through David’s briefcase that he’d dropped a few feet away from where he lay. She removed the envelope containing the divorce letter from inside it and put it into her pocketbook. No reason for that anymore, thought Cynthia.

  When the paramedics arrived, they confirmed that David Katz had died of a massive heart attack.

  “Does he have any other relatives?” they asked.

  “No,” said Cynthia.

  The funeral was small, Cynthia and Aldous, with just a few of David’s associates from work who nodded at Cynthia and mumbled that they were sorry. Cynthia clung to Aldous the whole time, remembering the vision of David lying motionless on the grass, but very little else. There seemed to be a fog in her brain. She swore she had seen her niece and the blond-haired youth, but when she checked her memories further, they were missing and when she tried to explain any of this to anyone, the words just wouldn’t come out.

  Aldous felt a sense of relief. It was over. He understood that in the last few months he had touched the edge of something sinister, something beyond the realm of his usual cases. He was happy not to have to analyze it, thankful for whatever or whoever had erased those memories.

  Cynthia moved back to her Town and Country home, but felt like she rattled around in there on her own. Officially, she was now CEO of her husband’s fur company, but had no head for business and happily handed the day-to-day running of the enterprise to a manager.

  She tried to return to her society life, but still at night she was lonely. So, one day she decided to visit Aldous above the clock shop. He took her out for tea and she suggested that maybe he might like to move into her overlarge house. He thought about this and thought that yes, he might like that very much.

  Six months later, they were married and every night after completing his mundane day’s work searching for missing cats and wayward husbands, Aldous would come home to his society wife and sleep in a bed with a picture of a wolf hanging on the wall above. And Cynthia still could never recall where the picture came from.

  Chapter 51

  Andrew guided Miri down the spiral staircase into P.A.W.S. In her hands, she clutched the silver charm of the tabby cat with the amber eyes. The amulet seemed to be sleeping; it was cool in her hands. She knew what she had to do this time; she needed to take it directly to Jessamyn.

  It was fortunate, she thought, that Andrew had been there, had found her. In her mind’s eye, she could still see the distressed face of Cynthia and she felt deeply sorry. She’d never wanted to hurt them, but David, she understood, could not have survived without the charm . . . but neither could he have survived with it.

  At the bottom of the steps, they were met by Jessamyn. If she had been watching in her scrying bowl, why had she not come to help, wondered Miri. She guided them directly to her chamber and then dismissed Andrew.

  “Thank you, Andrew,” she said simply, “you may go. You look like you could do with a warm shower and a nap.”

  Waiting for them in Jessamyn’s chamber was Quentin.

  “May I look at it?” he asked.

  Nervously, Miri handed the charm over. Could she trust this man, who had worked for so many years with Alistair? But Jessamyn obviously trusted him, had even forgiven him, maybe.

  “Can you do it?” asked Jessamyn.

  “Do what?” asked Miri. “Surely it needs to be destroyed. Doesn’t it still contain him?”

  “Yes, no, and yes,” said Quentin, smiling.

  “Yes, I’m pretty sure I can do it. No, I don’t think it needs to be destroyed . . . that would be a terrible loss; there are very few shapeshifter charms left in the whole world, so we need to preserve those that still exist. This charm is your family’s legacy, Miri, along with the one that you are wearing. But you are right; it is, at present, very dangerous, as it contains soul fragments from Alistair. You have simply quieted them with your attack, but they will surface again unless they are destroyed, and I believe I can do that.”

  “I don’t want to keep it, though,” said Miri suddenly, “even if you remove Alistair’s essence. It was stolen once. It could happen again.”

  “Agreed,” said Jessamyn. “Therefore I propose that after Quentin has worked on the charm, I conceal it in an illusionary safe in my office. I keep a number of important artifacts in here, and have never had a theft.”

  “If that’s what you think is best,” said Miri. “And Jessamyn . . .”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m sorry. This would never have happened if I had told you about the charm from the beginning.”

  “I’m not so sure about that, Miri. But in any case, I think you’d better go now and see Mrs. Bumsqueak.”

  Miri looked at herself, confused, and then realized that she was a mass of cuts and bruises from her encounter with the monster. She thanked Jessamyn and Quentin again and went to see the healer.

  They watched Miri leave.

  “You can do it?” said Jessamyn.

  “I think so,” replied Quentin, weighing the amulet in his hands.

  Chapter 52

  When Andrew was dismissed by Jessamyn, he spent a while just walking through the corridors of P.A.W.S. It felt strange to be back here after so many weeks away, yet no one gave him a second glance. Wolves were expected to wander. Josh,
he knew, rarely slept a whole week at P.A.W.S.

  Andrew wasn’t sure he wouldn’t prefer to stay away, but Alistair’s instructions were clear. He needed to stay near the charm . . . and near his son.

  Well, the charm was probably being handed over to Quentin, but that was okay. Andrew could handle him. For now, he was anxious to see Ryan.

  It was good, he thought, that Mandy had bonded with the baby. She would be easy to control. It would be much harder if Miri had taken to her brother, but she seemed repulsed by Ryan and only reluctantly watched him on the nights of the full moon.

  Andrew walked through the corridors of the Institute, making his way to Mandy’s room. He stopped outside the door, preparing himself. This was the same room Mandy had shared with Jenna. Suddenly, Andrew was overcome by a tremendous surge of sadness. He hadn’t been able to save Jenna. He had promised her he would keep her safe. He had lied to her, of course.

  In all the history of the werewolves, a wolf mother had never survived the birth of a human child on the night of the full moon. Mrs. Bumsqueak had known this, that’s why she’d wanted to try the wolfbane, to stop Jenna turning that night. But Alistair’s instructions to Andrew had been clear, for Ryan to fulfill his potential he had to be born on the night of the full moon.

  Still, Andrew had tried to save Jenna’s life; he thought that just maybe the potion might have given her enough strength to bear the pain of the baby pushing out of her lupine body. It hadn’t worked, of course, and he’d exposed himself to Quentin in the process, but Quentin he was sure he could control.

  Gently he tapped on Mandy’s door. Mandy came to the door and peered out at Andrew, then quietly beckoned him inside and put her finger to her lips.

  “Shh . . . he’s sleeping.”

  Andrew walked over and looked at Ryan asleep in his crib. Content in his slumber. Innocent.