by Harry Nix
Stephen copied the spell, Alex wondering what exactly it looked like as he did. Did he see fragments of comic pages that gradually filled in? Or did it start black and white and become color?
Eventually it was done and then the young necromancer cast the spell, the blue flame lighting up on the end of his finger. He waved it around and then touched it to his skin. There must have been an injury somewhere because he jumped as the magic zapped through him.
There was a rap on the door. Juno.
“The funeral is about to begin,” she called out.
Alex picked up the mage cuffs off the bed. Stephen put his hands out, but Alex just stood there for a moment before dropping the cuffs on the bed.
“I’m going to trust you, and I hope you’ll trust me,” Alex said.
He was thinking this could be an incredibly stupid thing he was doing. Who knew what spells the kid had?
But it felt like a worthwhile risk.
“Okay,” Stephen said.
Alex left the room without another word, blocking Juno’s view of Stephen as he came out the door so she couldn’t see he’d freed the kid.
Juno stepped closer to him and wrapped her hands around him. In his hybrid form he towered over her.
“You need to either kill him or take him to the city. Whatever you decide, do it fast, because the longer he’s here, the more upset your pack is getting,” Juno said.
“Can’t I just roar at them that he’s under my protection?” Alex asked.
Juno shrugged.
“If I’ve learned anything from Super Buddies, the 2013 masterpiece and final installment of the Air Bud series, it’s that you should listen to your wife.”
“Is that really the message of Super Buddies?”
“You’re right... I do need to watch it again. Next time we’re in Baxter, we’ll set it up, make a night of it. Sound good?”
“Yes. Wonderful. I can’t wait,” Alex said, plastering a smile on his face.
6
“Ito... cow! Ito... dog! Ito... chicken!” the child with the stick shouted out, waving at the others. The three other children playing with him began to obediently moo, bark, and cluck.
Alex and Nia were near the edge of the village waiting for Nia’s father Julius and some of his werewolves to arrive. Bish's sister was part of Julius’ pack. Nia had used the satellite phone to contact her father to let him know of Bish's death. It triggered a bit of worry for Alex, given that he had no idea if satellite phones could be tapped. He presumed at some point the satellite phone would simply stop working as the bill went unpaid, but for now it was working and so they'd used it.
They were standing and waiting, watching the children play. The mood of the pack was somber. The children were children, no matter what, playing some complicated game involving sticks as wands that could transform you into various animals.
“Who's Ito?” Alex asked. Nia had her arm entwined with his. She rested her head on his shoulder.
“Ito was a trickster werewolf from mythology. He’s magic, a shapeshifter, he steals things, plays tricks. In some stories he’s like a living God who is supremely powerful and fights for werewolves. Growing up werewolf means hearing endless stories of Ito and his crazy adventures. My favorite is Ito and the Otherworldly Pigs.”
“Otherworldly pigs?” Alex asked.
“Yeah, you know, magic pigs that give magic bacon. Ito steals them which sets off this huge war between these mages and some giants.”
“Are there any other stories of magic werewolves?”
“Not really. He’s the most famous so he kind of blocks everyone else out. Certainly, no one like you, if that's what you're asking.”
“They're here,” Jeremiah said. Jeremiah was one of the pack werewolves and, in human form, he looked like a Jeremiah, with an enormous beard and forearms that said he'd been chopping wood since he could walk. He wore a red plaid shirt too and had a shifter charm, good for a year, the sign of the previous wealth the Greenacre pack had held. He was also one of Bish's friends and was going to be leading the funeral.
Alex turned to see Julius emerging from the forest with a small pack of werewolves—about fifteen in total. They were all in hybrid form but a few were carrying backpacks which Alex assumed were full of clothes in case they decide to shift into human form.
He'd noticed that not many of the werewolves bothered to stay in human form. He'd found himself doing it too, just remaining in hybrid form at all times.
As Julius and his pack approached, Alex scratched a line in the dirt and then followed the ritual, Julius putting his foot slightly over it, and then Alex pulling him across the line.
“After the funeral we need to talk,” Julius said.
“We do,” Alex replied. The funeral was due to begin so they left it at that, Nia giving her father a quick hug as they walked down the hill to where the werewolves buried their dead.
Alex had been wondering what Julius would say about Jasper and the fact that Alex had killed him. Nia seemed to think he wouldn’t be too worried about it considering Jasper had been considered an asshole but Alex wasn't quite so sure. Jasper had also been the emissary, the conduit of the werewolves, who, at least on paper, had a seat at the table with the vampires, mages and witches.
Although it appeared he’d been fatally compromised and perhaps working for the mages or someone else, Alex wasn’t sure whether that would still be enough to justify the killing.
He pushed his mind off it as he walked down the hill, resisting the urge to do a headcount of his own people. Stephen was up in his room now, unguarded, not wearing mage cuffs. This would be the perfect time for him to attempt an escape, not that he would get far, but it would also be the perfect time for a werewolf to murder the mage. Alex hoped it wouldn't come to that; he at least figured now that Stephen wasn't wearing the mage cuffs there’d be some warning if a werewolf got ideas.
They arrived at the small graveyard, if you could call it that. Werewolves, Alex discovered, had a burial rite that would seem grotesque to outsiders. There was no coffin; the body was dumped naked in the dirt in a hole and left to dissolve back into the earth, to become part of all things once again. It was what happened before this that Alex found unnerving. To put it simply, the werewolves pulled the body to pieces. They did so gently, with reverence, according to Nia, but Alex wasn't looking forward to seeing. Nia had called it a tradition, but Alex could see what it really was—a defense against necromancy. A dismembered body couldn't rise from the dead.
Once everyone was at the ceremony and the children corralled, one or two still holding sticks, Jeremiah began speaking. He talked of Bish the hunter, and told stories of her taking down a gigantic boar all by herself. His stories turned comical, recounting a run-in with not one but two skunks and how he and Bish and other members of the pack had been forced to stay in a cave for a week, unable to get the scent off them, before they were allowed back in the village. He spoke of Bish the friend. Bish the amateur cook. Bish who was obsessed with murder mysteries and whose cabin was piled up with books. Bish’s sister quietly sobbed, as did other werewolves, and more than once Alex found himself wiping away tears for a werewolf he barely knew. Although she'd been part of his pack it felt as though his pack had been thrust upon him, much in the same way his mates had. They were his, yes… but he still did not know them.
After Jeremiah finished, he asked if anyone else would like to speak, but no one did. Bish’s sister was still shaking her head, wiping away tears. As Alpha, Alex was expected to participate in the next step. He steeled himself and stepped over to the side of the deep hole that had been dug. Bish was naked in her hybrid werewolf form. She'd been washed, but the werewolves did not perform any tricks upon the dead, so the bullet wound in her head was still visible. Following the lead of the others, Alex took a wrist and together, the werewolf pack lifted Bish off the ground and began to pull. With so many of them, it was incredibly easy, her hands and arms coming free. There was very little blood and A
lex was surprised to find that his stomach didn't turn, as he feared it would. It was done quickly, the body pulled to pieces, and each part dropped into the hole. It was then the rest of the pack and Julius’ pack came forward. Using their hands, they pushed in the enormous pile of dirt, filling the hole back to the top. Then it was done.
It was now late in the afternoon, and in celebration of Bish there would be a feast. The crowd dispersed and Alex quietly took Juno aside.
“Can you guard Stephen? No more good witch, bad witch though. I’m getting somewhere with him, and don't go into his room either,” he asked.
“I can't even give him a little fright? What’s the point of being a witch?” Juno said.
“I know the others want to kill him, but I'm starting to think capturing that kid is gonna work out really well for us,” Alex said. Juno nodded, gave him a kiss, then walked away.
Julius nodded to Alex, and he nodded back, waving towards the main house, Julius falling in beside him. As usual, Jacob had picked up the habit of shadowing Alex when he was around. At the front door of the main building, Alex sent him away to help with the meal preparations, and Jacob went without complaint. Alex took Julius down to the meeting room where he'd been conducting his experiments with enchanting. It was still cold as hell down there, no matter the temperature outside, and he was glad he was in his hybrid form.
“So, the kid adopted you,” Julius said as soon as they went in. Alex sat down in one of the chairs, looking at the blistered surface of the table and the blackened crater that the explosions had made.
“It's weird, but that's what I feel like too. I mean, I know I'm really only eight years older than him, but he’s kinda like my little brother now. I just want to protect him,” Alex said.
Julius walked around the other side of the table, taking the time to inspect the ruins of Alex's experiments, the twisted pieces of metal, the broken jewelry. He then sat down across from Alex.
“That’s what being the Alpha is about. Mages and other outsiders think it's always about violence and power, dominance and control. But it's not. You are at the heart of it, a servant. Have you heard of Vindiciae contra Tyrannos?
“Nia told me. You rule only by consent, right?”
“My daughter was always the smart one. Then of course she went off to college and studied a ridiculous amount of Latin and I’d buy books off the internet trying to keep up with her,” Julius said with a smile.
Alex was once again struck by the ease of the alpha and how things weren't really the way he assumed they were. It was clear to Alex that Julius was in charge of his pack, but at the same time he'd seen the alpha playing with children, putting on silly voices, and having clods of mud thrown at him before chasing them through the darkness, while they squealed and laughed.
Alex saw at that moment that he wasn't Julius. Hell, he didn't even know all the members of his pack's names. He supposed that it was what the obstacle course challenges had been about — integrating them, getting to know them, making connections through adventure and action. Of course, now with Bish's death and Stephen’s capture there was unrest in the pack, and he didn't even know some of them personally well enough to make an appeal for solidarity.
“We'll talk about Jasper but first I have some information for you. I found a pack. An alpha and a witch and some other wives and children. They disappeared around twenty-three years ago. I can't confirm any more details though. Where they live is surrounded by packs that are almost entirely wild. They almost never shift to human, there is no way to make a treaty with them, and they kill on sight. I presume there's a map around here somewhere, so once we find it I’ll mark it on there.”
“If they kill on sight what do the werewolves who live inside that area do? Are they the same?”
“The surrounding packs tolerate them using the slipways to go in and out, but only for them. Outsiders die. There is no contact, no satellite phone. The only way to get in there would be to sneak along a slipway, make it through the territories, or if you’re an Alpha, you could challenge a pack on the outside, kill their Alpha and take over. Which brings us to the next point. How is it that Jasper is dead?”
His tone was level, calm even, but Alex still felt the moment was balancing on a knife-edge. There was just so much she didn't know about this world, and despite talking to Nia about werewolf politics and the things that her father had done, it was an enormous, confusing mess. What was clear was that Jasper had worked to advance the cause of werewolves and despite the fact it seemed his people had been somewhat afraid of him, he was still held in some good regard.
“He agreed to help us to bring my problem to the table, but then that night we were in a cabin and someone cast a binding spell on it and tried to burn us alive,” Alex said.
Julius sat silent while Alex told the story, leaving nothing out. Breaking out of the cabin, challenging Jasper out of fury, and April stepping forward to pledge her land. Eric, the mage, declaring it would be a valid challenge and then suddenly finding himself in a fight with Jasper and losing badly until Alex got his teeth in his leg and accidentally cast Purify which had forced a black liquid out of Jasper's body. It appeared it had been hardening his bones and once it was gone, Alex soon killed Jasper, only to have his pack disappear into the darkness with only a few left behind. Only a bare fraction had returned.
Julius picked up a half-melted ring broken and tapped it on the table as though testing its strength. He used his fingers to straighten it before dropping it in the pile of junk.
“I had my suspicions, from time to time, that Jasper was, well, not entirely corrupt but corrupted to some degree. Years ago, it was easier, working hand in glove then one day something changed. I got the feeling that instead of both of us trying to push the boulder uphill, that sometimes he was standing on the other side of the boulder, trying to stop me. Have you discovered what the black liquid is?”
Alex shook his head. “April was looking at it, but I think she needs to take it back to her home, where she has the proper equipment. I presume it's some kind of bone-strengthening potion.”
Julius stared into the middle distance before picking up a blackened tiara and gently snapping it in his claws.
“There are other rumors though—leaders who have died and then bled black. Damn mages and vampires, always meddling. There are ways to do it too. Poisons that get inside you and take hold. You should speak to your witch wife about it,” Julius said. He put the broken tiara down and picked up another ring, straightening it with his claws before dropping it again. On Alex's part it felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to his brain again. It never occurred to him that someone could be controlling Jasper. His mind immediately went to Eric the mage and his mate, Alara the werewolf.
“Have you ever heard of Eric? He was a mage here and had a mate Alara. Could he have been involved?” Alex asked.
“I met him once or twice. I put him down as an… administrator. One of Jasper's right-hand men, anonymous, and in the background. About as interesting as a chartered accountant,” he said. There was a moment of silence before Alex decided to change the topic. After all, he only knew one alpha, and soon the celebration would begin, so he needed to get as much information out of him as he could.
“We don't have enough werewolves to hold all our territory. We were attacked by necromancers. I have one of them upstairs right now,” Alex said.
Julius cringed, momentarily baring his teeth which were sharp and white.
“You never admit to another alpha that you don't have enough in your pack to control your territory. Don't ever say that out loud,” Julius said.
He was still picking up bits of broken rings and jewelry and snapping it or straightening it with his claws.
“Nevertheless, they attacked us, bombed part of the village with silver. How does it work with the emissary and the seat at the table? We say Xavo did it and somehow they get punished?”
“That's meant to be the idea, and sometimes there are minor punis
hments along the way; them giving a little to maintain the illusion that the werewolves actually have some power. But the fact is, even if this was reported by Jasper I’m sure it would go nowhere. Even if your prisoner gave the enclave name, they’d simply deny it, and the other enclaves demand a level of evidence that simply doesn't exist. He could give a sworn confession and it wouldn't be enough.”
“What would you do if you were me?”
“The younger, angrier me would say kill your captured prisoner and deliver his mangled body back to his enclave as a threat. The older, more mature version of me has a different answer—take him back to his enclave, stand out in front of it, and tear his head off,” Julius said, ending with a growl.
Alex sat back in his chair, Julius’ sudden violent nature surprising him somewhat. For someone who spoke in Latin and clearly thought on a higher level than most, the fact he was advocating blood and violence was a surprise.
“Ignore me, ignore that. It’s just when I think about the silver being dusted over the village, it's hard not to get furious. The other approach is to try to use the mage, get every bit information out of him that you can, and then send them back unharmed. But then your next move might still be blood and violence, because what can't be solved with words will soon be solved with swords.”
There was a rap on the door, and Juno entered without waiting for a response. She nodded to Julius before smiling sweetly at Alex.
“The celebration is about to begin, may I steal you for a moment?” she asked.
Although she was all sweetness and light, Alex felt the hackles on the back of his neck rise. Julius obviously felt it too because he gave Alex a look shared between husbands since the beginning of time when their wives went on the warpath. He quickly made his excuses and got out of there. Juno closed the door, and still with her sweet smile on her face looked Alex up and down.