by Lilly Cain
It wasn’t long before they arrived. Helen was unceremoniously dragged from the car by her leg, but at least the caught her up by the shoulders before knocking her unconscious by dropping her on her head. She scanned the area but of course nothing was familiar. Except there were three RVs, similar to the last Romany bands, parked together near an old barn. No one walked nearby and no cars drove on the road. No real surprise there, this was a tiny spec of a town and there were likely more Rom here than locals.
“Sastipe, Danior. Look what we’ve brought you!” One of the men shouted. There were no women. The wolves laughed and dragged Helen closer to the middle RV. “A puyuria who just can’t stay away from us!”
A big man swung open the door of the RV and cocked his head at them. “Ah, Gypsy groupies. What can you do?” He was handsome enough with a thick head of black hair. He grinned and she caught sight of the white gleam of fangs. “But this is more than a groupie. Hello, Miss Mathews.”
One of the wolves beside her caught the edge of the duct tape on the back of her neck and ripped. She shrieked as it pulled hair and skin from her lips. But she wasn’t done. They couldn’t take her down with a few blows. “Hello, Ruv Danior.”
He smiled wider, showing a number of teeth that were definitely too long for a human mouth. “Hello indeed. Come looking for more land to steal? A new dose of magic, perhaps?”
She struggled to stand on her own without the grip of the wolves beside her. They let go at a small gesture from Danior. “I didn’t steal any land. You used it, but it wasn’t yours. And I didn’t know about the path. I didn’t understand.”
He took the three steps down from the RV with a leap that put him too close to her. “It is far too late for apologies. We suffered from your actions. The ruva especially. We take our magic from the path and the moon. Because of you we had to shift the path. Several members lost the ability to change.” He grabbed her by the arm and began to drag her toward the doors of the old gray barn. “And because Grandmother chose to illuminate you in our ways, you stole even more power. You don’t deserve the wolf.”
He pushed her through the door and she stumbled on the uneven floor inside. Her eyes had just adjusted to the dim light of a fire when the room flooded with light and she blinked. A workshop of sorts had been set up in the corner, a long bench filled with tools and materials she couldn’t identify, and what reminded her of a blacksmith forge and anvil but smaller.
“Fire it up.” Danior dragged her closer to the bench and then threw her to the cool stone floor. One of the other wolves hurried to the forge and began stacking it with coals from the fireplace.
“I hear you have been spending some time researching the Rom and visiting one of our bands.” He didn’t wait for an answer, busy with fitting a long pair of gloves over his hands. “You will have realized the talents we have. We are makers. Each of us has a way with a craft. We feel it is a gift from the powers in return for the loss of our land.”
Very carefully, he drew a long, thin bar of metal from a chest beside the workbench, then continued his lecture. “For me it is metal smithing.” He walked to her and tapped the bar against her pant leg. “My favorite is silver. Ironic, no?”
There was a small hole in her jeans. She’d noticed it when they did the laundry but hadn’t been concerned. Holes were the fashion and if it got too bad she’d simply throw them away. Now she wished she’d done that sooner. With a precision that said he might have done this before, he probed that tiny hole, only the size of a bottle cap, with the silver bar.
The moment the metal made contact with her skin, she burned.
Several agonizing moments later, in which she had screamed and begged for him to stop, he stepped away from her. Air came in quick pants between sobs. Danior clearly didn’t care if she begged and she vowed not to do it again.
He worked at the bench and her stomach rebelled at what he might be planning on doing next. “Why are you doing this?” Her voice shook. “I didn’t mean to hurt you or your people. I just didn’t understand.”
“And now that you do? Will you give us our land back?” A feminine voice came from the doorway and Helen squinted to make out who was there, silhouetted in the afternoon light.
* * *
“Christ. I cannot believe she did this.” David muttered for probably the tenth time. The old car shook and shuddered underneath him as he continued to push the speed to the maximum. He’d bought it from the guy who owned the motel and he hoped to hell it would make it to Blowing Rock. His hair fell in his face again and he pushed it back. “At least there’s been no cops.” And he was talking to himself again. “I ought to get a dog. At least then I could say I was talking to someone.”
What would having a dog be like with Helen around? Would they fight? Would she be dominant and the dog, his dog, become hers instead? Probably. “Why am I even thinking about this?” He blew past a sign that said ‘Blowing Rock 10 miles’ and groaned.
The woman was unbelievable. She’d left him behind, again! This was getting ridiculous. She likely thought she was protecting him, rather than ditching him, but being left felt the same either way. They were seriously going to have to work on some trust issues.
Lots of thoughts about the future, but not many about right now. What was he going to do when he got to the town? Look for the Rom and their usual gathering of RV campers and her car. That part was obvious. But what if he couldn’t find them? She wasn’t answering her phone. He had his gun, but only a few shells. The rest had been in the SUV.
The car shuddered again. “C’mon baby, just get me there.” He patted the dashboard and immediately regretted it. The surface with sticky with something he didn’t care to analyze.
The exit came up quickly and he almost missed it. He’d already left the main highway and the smaller ones weren’t marked as well. The speed limit dropped drastically the moment the sign appeared and he had to put the brake pedal down hard to stay under the limit. The last thing he needed was for some local to pull him over in a car that wasn’t properly registered, carrying an unsecured and loaded weapon in the back seat.
The best place he figured the Rom to be gathering was near the river. Google Earth showed several large clearings there. From what he’d seen there weren’t a lot of houses. Farms mostly dotted the riverside. The town had a quiet feel, but nothing unnatural, at least that’s how it felt to him. More like there weren’t many young people here any longer, and the aging population left had somewhere else to be on a sunny afternoon.
Driving at this pace during an emergency, and not being sure where to go was enough to make a person crazy. Finally, he reached the slow-moving river and began to trace its path upstream toward the National Park. On the outskirts of town, he found the Rom gathering. There were nearly three times as many campers and their arrangement was more like a triple set of rings than a large circle. He parked on the side of the gravel road leading to the clearing where the majority of the RVs sat.
Getting out of the car took less bravery than he’d imagined and more energy. Driving all night, with stops only for bathroom breaks and coffee, was certainly taking its toll. But this time he was going to catch up with her. This time he’d be there.
“Excuse me, but I’m looking for someone.”
The young woman who had been staring at her cell phone as she walked across the road stopped and stared at him. “Most people are.”
This was beginning to feel like déjà vu, only with the younger version of Eva. “She was driving a black SUV and I think she came here to talk to Grandmother Donceanu.”
The girl lifted one eyebrow and shook her head. “Outsiders don’t talk to grandmother.” Her tone was scornful. “And besides, Grandmother Donceanu isn’t here.” She started to walk away but David grabbed her arm and stopped her.
“Hey, let go!”
“Look, I just need to find—”
“Take your hands off her. Right now.” A big man with a broken nose walked closer and stood with his arms cros
sed, staring at David.
David let go and put his hands up slightly in the air. “Please, I just need to find my... My friend. I’m sure she must be with your grandmother.”
The girl looked around at the growing crowd. Her smile said she was enjoying the attention. “He means Grandmother Donceanu.”
The crowd stared at him, their faces grim. He wasn’t going to get anything from these people. They’d closed ranks and he was on his own. “Can you at least tell me where Ruv Danior is camped?”
Someone in the crowd laughed. “Sure, tell him where the ruva are. See if he likes what he finds there!”
The big man who had come first to the girl’s defense grinned and nodded. “Very well. You can find Danior at an old farm down the river about a mile from here.” He pointed south. “He and his friends camp there alone.”
Great. So, now he knew where the wolves were and if Helen hadn’t been able to find the grandmother, she would’ve gone looking for them. He climbed inside the old car and after a few minutes struggling to get it started, thanked God when it cranked over with a bang. At least he wasn’t going to have to walk, especially if he was taking the shotgun with him. Doubtless, if they had seen that, instead of laughing at him the Rom would have been calling the wolves for reinforcements.
15
“Grandmother Donceanu. Welcome to my work room. It’s so nice to see you taking an interest in the ruva.” Danior continued his work and gathered more pieces of metal together. He didn’t seem disturbed by the grandmother’s arrival. In fact, he seemed pleased by it. He set the scraps in a concrete-looking crucible and used long tongs to place it in the forge.
Helen watched the interaction between the two. Danior clearly wanted to punish her more than she’d already been punished by the curse. Maybe he even wanted to kill her. She wasn’t sure what the grandmother wanted. She’d cursed her; something that Helen had initially thought was a terrible punishment. But from everything she’d learned about these people, they valued the wolves, they valued freedom, and they valued power. Had the curse been a punishment or an introduction to their world?
“I am always glad to visit, though sometimes it seems I am not wanted among you.” Donceanu strode closer until she stood over Helen. “What are you doing, Danior? What is this? Why is she here?”
“Why you’d have to ask her. She came here of her own free will. Even after we warned her not once but twice.”
Donceanu looked thoughtfully down at Helen. “Like calls to like, I suppose.”
“I didn’t come here my own free will.” Helen wiggled over enough to show the duct tape on her wrists. “Yes, I drove to the town, but it was to come and see you. When I stopped to rest, they objected me.”
Donceanu cocked her head and stared at Helen like she could see through her eyes and into her mind. “You came to see me. What did you want from me?”
A commotion at the door caught Helen’s attention but before she could really see what was happening Danior strode around the workbench and picked her up by her shirt. “No! There will be no more bargains,” he snarled at the grandmother. “When this woman warped our path you did nothing! Nothing to stop her from taking the land and making it unusable for us.” He shook Helen until her teeth clattered. “Oh, no, instead, you rewarded her! You gifted her with the ability to change and run the path on four feet instead of two. You gave her our gift.”
Donceanu stared calmly at him. “Indeed I did.”
* * *
David pointed the gun at the two men blocking his way. He could see Helen in the grip of a huge man standing beside a forge and another older woman standing beside them. The man was shouting and shaking Helen like a rag doll.
“Let me in, right now.”
The men grinned at him like idiots and one laughed out loud. “You have to be kidding. Just what do you think that little pop gun can do to us?”
“You get out of here now and don’t come back.”
Crap. He couldn’t actually bring himself to shoot them. They were young, barely out of their teens. And he had no idea if the shotgun would actually cause any damage to them or not. Were they wolves? Or just young, with the belief that came from that age that they were invincible?
“I need to talk to the grandmother.”
They shook their heads, grins intact.
“That’s my girlfriend. I need in there, for God’s sake. Let me in!” His heart pounded and he grit his teeth. “Argh!” He twisted his grip on the shotgun, grabbed the barrel and swung it, slamming boy on the left in the head and then rammed the barrel into the gut of the boy on the right. He threw the gun to the floor and charged through them. Hands grabbed at him, but he’d played football in high school and knew how to dodge.
The gathered people at the workbench turned to stare at him. It seemed like he was running in slow motion, trying to get through those last few yards to reach Helen.
“Stop!” The command came from both the grandmother and the man holding Helen at the same time.
“I will handle this, Danior. Put her down.”
They locked gazes and David looked from one to the other. Clearly, he and Helen had walked in on a power struggle between the wolves and the woman who ran the Rom. Who held the power to free Helen? Who would they have to convince to let her go and remove the curse? Danior dropped Helen to the floor. At least he’d stopped shaking her.
“Who are you?” There was still beauty in the old woman’s face; in the high cheek bones and tall forehead, and her long wavy gray hair.
“Are you Bianca Donceanu? The lawyer?”
She nodded. “And grandmother to all the eastern bands. I will ask again, who are you?”
“I’m with her.” He pointed to Helen and was glad to see that she seemed to be recovering from Danior’s vicious shaking. “My name is David Sherman and I guess you could say I’m her boyfriend. I’m here to negotiate her release from your magic.”
A small smile tilted the corners of the grandmother’s lips. “So, you love the woman who took away our path?”
A collective growl sounded from the men in the corners of the barn. David scanned the room but his attention was quickly drawn back to Danior who charged toward him but was stopped by the grandmother’s outstretched hand. The wolf glared at him. So, now he knew who was in charge. A vital fact for a negotiator. This was his job and he was good at it.
“I… I love the woman who developed a hospital where there was only marshland. Who didn’t know about your people or what that land meant to you.”
“But you do love her?”
David’s mouth went dry and his heartbeat picked up and rattled in his chest like the old car’s engine that had barely gotten him here. He licked his lips and ran a hand over the hair on the back of his neck. Helen stared at him and her mouth hung open. News to her, then. He thought he’d made it clearer than that, although he hadn’t said the words. Wonderful. Just the way he’d like her to find out.
“I love her.”
“If you love her, then I will ask you this: what will you sacrifice for her? Would you take the gift in her place? And the anger of these men?”
* * *
“No!” Helen struggled to get up on one knee and finally managed to stand. This could not happen. Her mind swam with the revelation of the last few moments. He loved her. And they were going to convince him, Mr. Boy Scout, to take on the curse to save her. The Rom’s gift would really be a curse for him. She was growing used to it; the pain and the strangeness and the freedom, and admittedly the power. But she had seen his face when he watched her change. He’d been revolted and pitied her. If he took the curse he would hate her. He couldn’t take it and she had to be rid of it. The only choice was for her to be free of it so they could be together.
She scrambled to think of something to stop this. “Don’t do that to him. You can’t. He is innocent of all of this.”
“He might have been innocent once, but now this man has tied himself to you. Your fate is his.”
&nb
sp; “This is ridiculous.” Danior threw up his hands in the air. “What are you even offering, Grandmother? Would you spread our magic so thin? You’ve already given the gift away to one outsider. Is this how you hope to protect the bands and strengthen the path? Perhaps, it is time you stepped down.”
“Perhaps it is time for you to remember who channels the magic of the path and the moon. Go back to your puttering, Danior. I will handle this.”
The wolf growled and Helen spotted the tell-tale shift in his stance that said the big man might be thinking of becoming the Big Bad Wolf and eating the grandmother, just like in Red Riding Hood. But Grandmother Donceanu turned her back on him and Helen couldn’t smell any fear from her. Danior hesitated, and then stepped back.
“You haven’t answered my question. Will you take her place?”
David staggered closer. “Yes.”
Helen jumped between him and the old woman. “No! I’ll do anything. I’ll find you a new campground! You know I work with land development, I can do it!”
Donceanu ignored her. “If you take the way of the path, you must remain a wolf until the next moon. If you return walk the path on two before the next full moon passes, feet you will lose your ability to change and the ruva may have their way with you and with her.”
“No, no!” Helen made a grab for the Rom leader but the wolf behind her, Danior, pounced and threw her back to the ground. He grinned at her, amused either by the opportunity to hurt her or the possibility he would get to kill them both, she wasn’t sure.
The choice was his. Take the curse and live as a wolf for a month. That didn’t sound so bad, except he knew how hard Helen fought to remain human, and he’d seen for himself the pain she endured to shift forms. A month was a long time to live as an animal. What if they didn’t let him shift back? What if he remained a wolf forever?