by DG Wood
Onto the rocks below, the bones and brains of these young men in their brilliant blue tunics were dashed to pieces. By morning, Wolfe lay dying, but the war’s outcome was secured.
Nathaniel’s deadly service had been bought with the hand of his daughter to the newly-promoted General William Howe in secret matrimony, along with the promise of a homeland for Nathaniel’s people, where they could live free of persecution. Yet, once again, the children of Nebadchanezar faced betrayal. By the fire of the burning French homes, General Howe slit his new bride’s throat and ordered that all such abominations of God be cut down with silver blades.
Buck caught himself mumbling curses at the unfortunate course of history, as he lifted Sam’s body off the bed of his truck and carried the dead man to the mine shaft. It was to avoid such slaughter that Buck had restricted the keeping of silver bullets to the sheriff alone. Would his successor follow his example or allow the town to descend into the violence of former times? If he could see his son take his place, then perhaps more dangerous elements would be kept in check. As they were tonight. But, even then, Geraldine had become the kingmaker by ensuring Victoria was now, in effect, Buck’s daughter.
Buck placed Sam’s body on the ground and grabbed hold of one of the boards he had placed over the mine opening a couple days before. Once he had pulled enough boards free, he grabbed hold of Sam’s ankles and dragged the body, hunched over and backwards, into the tomb. He would learn soon enough what it was Sam had been so desperate to meet with him about. What threat Sam had seen in the outside world.
Darkly slid the last note under Carter’s door. Peter and Shane would wake to find the same instructions. She sat by her window and watched the sky turn from black to pale blue, as Serena slept contentedly a few feet away.
At sunrise, Gus entered without a word. Shane was the first of the actors to knock. He was wearing his sweats, and Darkly was glad to see he showed up at her door before he went for his run. Peter and Carter were a half hour behind.
“Early morning. This time tomorrow is best, when the townspeople are at their groggiest. We leave in two vehicles and abandon the trailers.”
Darkly felt honesty was the best policy at this point. All the Little Red Riding Hoods should abandon the trip to grandmother’s house and get the hell out of the woods.
“I don’t understand. We all saw the body, Darkly,” said Carter.
Carter looked like death warmed over. This latest enterprise was going to seal the deal with his father. He’d be banished to some middle-management position in a regional office like Kansas City, and his life would be over.
“Parts of him were eaten,” Carter said, as though no one else had noticed that grim fact.
“Are you saying I imagined what I saw?” Darkly responded.
“That’s exactly what he’s saying. It’s what I’m saying too. None of us liked Christopher all that much, but this is in bad taste,” reprimanded Shane.
Shane had said his peace and now got up to leave. Serena reached out for Darkly.
“I believe you.”
“Hold on, Shane.” Carter went into director mode. “None of this matters. I’ve decided to shut down production. We can pull out by the end of day tomorrow.”
Peter looked ready to object, but Carter cut him off.
“I will honor all contracts. With the money saved by pulling the plug, artists’ fees can be covered in full. I’ll let the sheriff know at the funeral today.”
“No,” said Darkly. “Don’t say anything to anyone.”
Darkly realized she was going to have to pull out the big guns.
“Who the hell do you think you are?”
Peter stood up and got in her face. Gus moved to her side, but she waved him aside. She knew how to take care of this once and for all. Darkly emptied her pack onto her bed, tore back the bottom nylon panel and pulled out the hidden RCMP badge.
It was now Gus’s turn to get in Peter’s face.
“And in case you were wondering, photography isn’t my main gig either.”
“I’m with Officer Darkly. You should be too,” pleaded Serena.
“Constable,” corrected Darkly.
“Constable Darkly,” Serena said with a shaking voice brought on by a body that was also shaking. She was a bundle of nerves. She should probably take another pill. It would have a calming effect.
“I have people to thank and pay,” Carter protested.
“Leave a note and a cheque by your bedside.”
Carter and Darkly stared at one another until Serena broke the silence.
“Should we get breakfast? Won’t it look suspicious if we don’t?”
“I’m not hungry,” said Carter, who left without saying another word.
Serena smiled and said with the glee of a schoolgirl, “Yay. We’re going home.”
But not until tomorrow. Darkly knew a lot could happen in a day. And wolves run in packs.
The clouds rolled in an hour before the funeral. Buck took his position as a pallbearer. Carter, Darkly, Gus and the actors stood around the open grave under the overcast sky.
The pressure in Buck’s skull told him they were in for a downpour later.
A few local onlookers were still showing up to pay their respects.
The coffin was set down onto two-by-fours in front of Reverend MacIntyre, his bible open at the ready. The official mourners Darkly had observed previously grabbed the ends to the two ropes that lay beside the boards supporting the coffin’s weight. Upon lifting the coffin, Buck pulled the boards out of the way, and it was lowered into the grave.
Darkly noticed the coffin’s lid was splintered in parts, but patched back together and messily painted over. She even noticed a hanging hinge. But, she had been looking for imperfections.
The grave-side sermon was the traditional ashes to ashes, dust to dust, with a smattering of the mystery of God’s ways. Geraldine, Trey, and Victoria were also in attendance. Geraldine’s face displayed momentary outbreaks of joy. And when she invited Carter and the rest back to the diner for post-burial refreshments, her look of sadness resembled something from a French mime’s act.
This whole situation was getting out of hand. This kind of glee was contagious and soon the whole town would catch the scent. Buck looked at his boy. He was forced to acknowledge that Victoria made him happy. Buck loved his son more than anything or anyone else in this world. Today was the day to preserve a future for him and his descendants.
The Moon River Diner was filled to capacity. A social event, even one as dour as a funeral, was a break from the monotony that appeared a constant in Wolf Woods.
Buck helped himself to a deviled egg and caught Carter’s eye in the corner of the room. He could make out the director’s conversation with Ed. It was something about big screen televisions hanging on the living room walls of every American home. Ed was bewildered. This was it. “Here we go,” Buck said under his breath.
Ed saw Buck’s approach and walked away without excusing himself.
“Got a moment?” asked Buck.
Carter watched Ed walk off and inhale a pork pie like a grape.
“Interesting guy.”
“Yeah. We aren’t lacking for characters in this town. You folks could make a movie about each one of them, if you were so inclined.”
“I wish I could. The thing is, I think this is me done with movie-making. The gods have spoken, and I’ve finally decided to listen.
“I see. So, what’s your plan for this film?”
Carter had thought about what Darkly said, but he also knew he was a dreadful liar. And even if she was a Mountie, Carter was convinced that old Hollywood adage of nobody knows anything about anything held true for the world of cops too. So, he told Buck he was pulling the plug.
“We’ll pull out by tomorrow night.”
“I see.” Time for Bu
ck’s sales pitch. “I’m not going to lie to you, Carter. We are a town in decline. We could sure use a shot in the arm from the outside world. We need teachers for our young, leaders who can turn this place around. We used to be quite a vibrant place. I believe we could be again with the help of good, talented folks like you.”
“I’m sorry?” Carter was flattered and confused. “You want me to, what, take up part-time residence as a professor or something?”
“No, I’m asking you to move here permanently. All of you.”
Carter laughed. “No offence, Sheriff, but we all have lives we put on hold. If you’re looking to set up a sort of mountain film center like Sundance, well, yeah, I could consider some kind of consulting role.”
“I don’t know what Sundance is, but I’d like to show you something, if I may.”
Buck glanced at Doc Ross, who nodded his head.
“Okay.”
Carter was finding this incredibly bizarre. His movie goes down the toilet, a cast member gets eaten by a bear, or wolf, and this civil servant thinks he’d like to hang around for a few years.
Buck unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt. Carter assumed this was going to be a display of battle scars or tattoos. Carter had not so much as a dog bite or the word Mom on his body, so there was really no point in showing up to this competition.
Carter smiled and looked into Buck’s eyes. There was something suddenly different about the man. His clear slate blue eyes were changing right in front of Carter. The blood vessels in the whites of the sheriff’s eyes became engorged. A wave of mustard yellow seeped into the corneas, a muddy pond replacing the sea that was there a moment before. Buck stepped out of the loafers he’d put on specifically for the funeral.
Carter watched, amazed, as Buck’s face twitched, and his hands clasped a chair next to him. His fingers were retracting into his palms just as the nails were growing. Carter now thought backing up to be a very good idea. No one else had noticed yet.
Buck still felt lucid. His feet were expanding through his socks now. He didn’t expect Victoria learned anything about darning from her mother. He felt the cold floor against the bare pads of his feet. He looked over at Doc Ross.
Doc reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pistol. He nodded his head at Buck and smiled comfortingly. Good old Doc.
Serena noticed the pistol first, and followed Doc’s gaze over to Buck. She screamed just as Buck dropped to all fours and felt the wave of nausea pass over him, to be replaced with the heat running through the capillaries under his skin. He looked up at Carter, who had pressed himself against the wall behind him. His eyes were fixed on Buck. He was frozen in terror.
The townsfolk in the diner each stepped into place next to one of the film people. It was choreographed like a ballet. Geraldine sidled up to Darkly and put her arm around the younger woman’s waist.
Darkly tore her eyes away from Buck for a moment. Geraldine smiled with a “such is life” look smeared across her face.
Darkly watched the scene unfold and was once again a little girl hiding from monsters. The long-repressed memory of her biological mother’s face flashed before her eyes. A woman in torment, a woman transforming, just as the man in front of her was doing. Darkly clutched her necklace, stroking it for comfort.
Geraldine stroked Darkly’s hair.
“Don’t be afraid. All is as it should be.”
Darkly didn’t notice Geraldine’s smile turn to a frown when she looked down at Darkly’s chest and saw the blue veins showing through the make-up Darkly had not touched up this morning.
“What a beautiful necklace, you have there. Where did you get it?”
Darkly didn’t hear her.
Buck’s shirt and pants tore open, as his shoulders and hindquarters expanded. His ears had climbed up onto the front of his head, and his mouth had become a snout of long, yellowed teeth. The wolf was the size of Buck, just differently proportioned, wiry, and covered in long, coarse brown hair.
Buck’s eyes had not left the petrified Carter. He snarled, and placed one paw in front of the other, ready to devour the director. Or so Carter thought.
The truth was, there were two kinds of werewolves. All lost most of their identity in the transformation. But, they did not forget their humanity. In fact, a few, like Buck, had spent years working at maintaining more than a tenuous link to their human consciousness. Regardless, in the wolf state, it was a deep-rooted instinct to be wary of attack by humans they encountered. Snarling and growling were defensive measures meant to scare off the threat. Nothing more.
But, the second kind of werewolf, unlike Buck, saw humans as prey. Sam was the second kind, just like Buck’s brother Wyatt. Buck believed Victoria was inclined to be, as well. For the sake of Trey, he held out hope that she would grow out of it.
Doc fired the pistol. Buck yelped as the dart lodged itself under one of his shoulder blades. One more step, and the animal collapsed. The wolf strained to lift its head off the floor and turned to look directly at Darkly. They were Buck’s eyes as much as the wolf’s. There was a human soul in there. Buried, but in there, nonetheless. Darkly had seen it.
Buck slid his snout under his paw in one final defensive gesture, and then passed from consciousness. No one said a word, as Ed came forward and hoisted the wolf over his shoulders and carried Buck out of The Moon River Diner. The wolf had already begun the transformation back to man.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Buck knew it was wrong. But wrong where? In the outside world, sure it was. But here? This was self-preservation. He was protecting her interests as much as his own. If not him, someone else. And he knew she liked him. She came here of her own free will, after all.
He slid his hand across Darkly’s beautiful body, moving down under the sheets, trailing his mouth across her own at the exact moment he slid his fingers inside her. She didn’t resist. He accepted her permission and took her upper lip between his own lips. As he bit down softly, Darkly moved her hands over his buttocks and pulled him closer, asking for more of him. She could not contain herself. This was all so much more than desire.
Darkly let go of Buck and grabbed the bed sheet in his stead. Her nails passed through the fabric and dug deep indentations into her palms. Buck wanted her. He wanted her all at once. It was that overwhelming need to claim her so that no one else could.
He forced himself to slow his pace. He became gentler. He looked down into her open eyes, and she smiled up at him. She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled his mouth back to hers. There was no turning back now.
It had been so very long for Buck. This kind of intimacy was for other men. He had to forgo so much for the good of the rest. Well, that is what he told himself. There had certainly been no lack of offers. There were the casual drop-bys with a cake. Those young women soon gave up hope. There were the dirty looks from the ancient women. Who was he to put the future of the town at risk by acting like some old spinster? But he was raising Trey. Trey would be his only focus. He would not be distracted from the task at hand. Trey would lead this town into a better age when Buck was gone.
He had saved the infant’s life, a new life that would have been denied his birth rite in the outside world. And now his beautiful son was one of them, one of the damned. Yet, he was damned and happy. Trey and Victoria ran through the night together, bound up in something greater together than they could experience separately.
There had been similar nights of a purely physical nature for Buck. He would find himself chasing the white light in the sky. Then, suddenly, another moon runner was flying through the night alongside of him. Vague memories of biting the back of her neck, and that merciful release. It was never spoken of the next day. Sometimes, the scent of another gave it away, and he and the young woman would avoid each other’s gaze for a week or two. Even among monsters, there was a sense of propriety.
Buck turned Dark
ly over onto her stomach. He kissed the back of her neck and breathed in deeply the scent of her hair. Darkly turned her head, and Buck followed her gaze out the bedroom window. The sliver of a crescent of moon was disappearing beyond the window frame. It was setting almost as fast as the sun. The sun was, in fact, set, but its residual light clung to the horizon like a child fighting sleep. That light, that mere memory of the day, grabbed hold of the moon, as if to pull the graceful lady unwillingly into bed, and stained her with blood in the struggle. The moon was bleeding. It was just like that evening two decades ago.
Wyatt had spotted them first. There hadn’t been campers up there on the ridge in a few years. He said there was a couple. No one suspected it was the last of the Darkly family who had returned.
Sheriff Luther called a meeting of the town elders. Wyatt and Buck’s father hated what were referred to as “events.” But there was no denying the desperate nature of their situation. Five babies had died this past winter, genetically weakened to the usual line-up of infant illnesses. The town needed new blood. Its days were numbered.
From the first days of the curse, many had argued the best thing for their kind would be to die out. They were, after all, an abomination. But, how could any father deny his children the hope of redemption, however faint that hope may be? So, they kept producing one generation after the next. But they had a new plan brewing. A plan that would eventually end centuries of isolation.
It was decided. The campers would be taken. The man would have to be killed. Sadly, Luther knew there was no way around this. And he knew his son was all too willing to carry out the dreaded deed. Luther told himself it was because Wyatt was ready to accept such duties to spare others the awful responsibility. But, Luther also knew, deep down, that this was a lie.