by DG Wood
They had tried to reach accommodations with couples in the past, but discovered a clean break was the only chance for a female captive’s adjustment to the reality of a very difficult situation. The women of the town would help her as best they could. But, even then, the possibility of suicide was still high.
It was Luther’s duty as the Alpha, the sheriff of the town, to supervise all such events. He was also training his son to be ready for his own bid for the position. So, tonight, Wyatt would lead the abduction, and Luther would pore himself a whisky and wait at home. It was a test that Luther’s son would fail.
Buck woke from the dream on Doc’s hard examination table. There was no Darkly beside him. He was alone, naked and covered with a sheet. On Doc’s desk, there was a change of clothes and a piece of chocolate cake.
After the revelation at the diner, Darkly and the others were escorted back to the hotel under armed guard. They found Marvin and Jake had been brought into town to join them, and that good old boys stood guard with shotguns at the front desk. A plate of egg salad sandwiches sat undisturbed in front of them.
Marvin looked up at Darkly as she entered the foyer. He had returned to set after the funeral to prepare for closing up shop and clearly knew nothing about what had taken place earlier in the day. Darkly looked away, having no clue what to say. Nothing could adequately describe the day’s events.
Lewis strolled up to the group and eyed the untouched plate of sandwiches and shook his head.
“Doc will be around later,” he said.
Lewis was holding a stack of old National Geographics. He placed them on the table next to the plate of sandwiches and noticed there were two more people than he had originally made up rooms for. Marvin and Jake had been staying in the RVs at night. He was not about to beat the dust out of another bed.
“The Reverend thought you might want something to read. Some of you might have to double up tonight.”
He shook his head again and walked back to the front desk, not at all happy to have customers.
Doc Ross arrived late in the afternoon. His general disposition was cheery. He wore a tweed jacket and looked as benign as anyone who isn’t capable of growing hair and fangs on command.
He slapped Carter on the back and reached into the group and pulled out a sandwich of now wilted lettuce and egg more brown than yellow. He took a bite.
“Whichever one of you is lucky enough to get Lucy, you won’t go hungry.”
“Excuse me?” Peter asked, agitated and pacing the hotel foyer.
Doc smiled and pulled out an old pipe from his pocket. The mouthpiece was indented with teeth marks. He looked into the empty bowl.
“I don’t suppose one of you has any tobacco?” Doc asked hopefully.
The group looked at him blankly.
“A cigarette will do.”
Peter stopped his pacing and pulled a pack of Marlboros from his pocket and presented it to Doc Ross.
“I’ll give you the whole fucking pack if you call off the redneck posse and let me the hell out of here.”
Doc leveled his eyes at Peter. He took the pack of cigarettes, removed one, and handed the pack back to Peter.
“Just the one will do. I may be a doctor, but I have no desire to deny a man his little vices.”
Doc removed a silver lighter from his pocket and lit the cigarette. He closed his eyes and shuddered, his hand shaking as it touched the silver. He lit the cigarette and savored the first drag.
“It reminds me of my cross to bear.”
Doc held the lighter out for all to see before putting it back in his pocket. After the brief moments of elation the cigarette brought, Doc reopened his eyes and addressed the whole group.
“I must explain. Lupinism, that is, the act of becoming a werewolf, is a condition contracted through sexual intercourse. There is no cure that has yet been discovered. There are those of us who have come to look at things from the opposite perspective. Perhaps becoming a werewolf is a cure for the disease of being merely human. It is in this belief you must place your trust if you ever wish to leave this town again.”
Buck, Doc Ross, Geraldine, and Reverend MacIntyre sat around the diner table. Geraldine reached into the center of the table and grabbed the coffee pot. She began topping up four cups.
“This is the last of the coffee. It’s back to home-grown garden mint tea, unless one of our scouts could put it on the shopping list.”
“It can’t be a priority,” Buck explained. “Not when we’re so low on essential medicines.”
The remaining amount Geraldine was going to pour into Buck’s cup, she now poured into her own.
“Is that supposed to teach me a lesson?” Buck quipped.
“Could you two try to behave like the leaders of the community you are?” Reverend MacIntyre scolded.
The Reverend had known both Buck and Geraldine from the time they were cubs, and he had never seen them miss an opportunity to take a jab at one another.
“You both really do try my God-given patience at times.”
Buck and Geraldine looked down at the table in remorse. Buck sipped his empty cup.
Doc Ross took over.
“Thank you, Reverend.” So, we need to decide who mates with who.
The good Reverend butted in again. “Arranged marriages, if you please, Doctor.”
“If that helps, all right,” Doc continued. “Who marries who? This is the best of any situation. Six eligible bachelors, and two young women of the right age.”
Doc Ross looked down at a list of names.
“So, we have fifteen women who have been patiently waiting for just such an opportunity. I suggest we arrange a good old-fashioned mixer and let nature run its course.”
“You mean dancing?” Reverend MacIntyre asked with a twinkle in his eye.
Buck smiled. He knew of the Reverend’s weakness for a waltz. How times had changed. In Buck’s youth, when they were forced to recruit from the outside world, it was women who were needed. Now, the tables had turned.
“Good,” Doc Ross said. “Reverend MacIntyre has kindly agreed to host the dance in the church basement.”
“And what about the women?” Geraldine asked.
“What do you think Geraldine? You’re the only woman at the table.”
Doc Ross was genuinely willing to defer to her judgment.
“Thank you for noticing, Doc. We all know the problem the Darkly girl presents. Curious, nosey. Ed is a forceful man.”
“Force of nature more like it,” the Reverend snorted.
“He could bring her into line.” Geraldine smiled at Buck when she said this.
“It does seem only fair. He’s been passed up--” Doc Ross began.
“I’ll take her.” Buck looked ready to leap on the table and proclaim it to the world.
The rest of the table sat there in silence for a moment, rather stunned.
Geraldine broke the silence. “You already have a son.”
“As you have said to me before, I have a son, but I never produced one.”
“And God loves you for what you did, my boy.”
Reverend MacIntyre was unsuccessful in breaking the tension.
“Buck, you have had the opportunity to take any woman in the town. It’s your right--”
“And I am now exercising that right,” Buck answered Doc Ross. “Give the other girl to Ed.”
Doc Ross nodded his head.
“I believe Darkly’s already with the photographer,” Geraldine retorted.
“Then we’ll have to split them up,” Buck said with uncharacteristic lack of sympathy in his voice. “She’ll adjust.”
Buck got up from the table, effectively ending the meeting of the town council. He tipped his hat to the table and walked out of the diner.
Geraldine smiled brightly at the two
remaining men.
“My goodness, the sheriff never ceases to surprise me. Doc, your grandson, Zachariah, he enjoys his first moon run tonight, doesn’t he?”
“Yes he does, Geraldine.”
“Such a big day in any young boy’s life. Or girl’s life. I remember my own. You tell him I’m going to bake a big gooseberry pie in his honor.”
Carter was now explaining to Jake and Marvin the unbelievable course of events that meant they were all screwed. Darkly could hear muffled yelling through the wall dividing her room and Carter’s. The talk wasn’t going well.
The yelling was abruptly cut off by a quick succession of knocks at Darkly’s door. Darkly didn’t answer it right away.
“Who is it?”
“It’s the sheriff. Buckwald. I mean Buck.”
Buck looked down the hallway. Several doors had opened a crack, and people were watching him, making him feel self-conscious.
“Would you mind coming to the door?”
An old fairy tale ran across Darkly’s mind.
“Why don’t you huff and puff and blow the door down?”
Buck had no clue what she was talking about. He raised a picnic basket into the air, which Darkly couldn’t see through the closed door.
“I brought some food. I thought you might be hungry.”
Well, Darkly was, indeed, hungry. She had passed on the egg salad sandwiches downstairs.
Buck decided to go through the menu.
“I have egg salad sandwiches, some homemade beer, fruit.”
The door opened, and Darkly let it swing wide open.
“I also brought a pie,” finished Buck.
“Is it an egg salad pie?”
“No. It’s cherry.”
“For the record, Sheriff, I hate egg salad. Most people hate egg salad. Are you trying to starve us as well as hold us against our wills?”
“W--we have a lot of chickens.”
“I didn’t think wolves and chickens got along.”
Buck was wearing a crisp white shirt and a tie. His jeans had a pressed crease in them.
“You’re thinking of foxes.”
They both stood there in silence for a couple of minutes.
“Did I mention I brought beer, which will be cold or warm depending on how long you leave me standing here?”
Darkly let him in and shut the door behind him, prompting Gus to step out of his room and into the hallway. He walked slowly to Darkly’s door and pressed his ear to it.
Darkly pointed to the rickety wooden table in the corner.
“You can put it down there.”
Buck did as he was told and opened the basket. He removed two mismatched glasses and a tall brown bottle of ale. He removed the twist top and poured him and Darkly some of his homemade concoction. He turned around to pass Darkly her beer. She met the gesture with her RCMP badge held at face level.
“Buckwald Robertson, I’m arresting you for kidnapping. You have the right to retain and instruct counsel without delay. You have the right to keep your mouth shut. Do you wish to make a telephone call?”
“To where?”
“I’m assuming you have a lawyer in this town?”
“We do. But, I don’t think his licence is valid any longer.”
Buck took a sip of beer.
“I must instruct you to hand your duties over to a deputy.”
Buck took another sip.
“I’m afraid I don’t have one. But, you’ve made me realize I should make it a priority. Maybe you’d like to apply for the job?”
Buck held Darkly’s beer out to her again. She accepted it and took a long drink out of frustration.
“If you’d like to interrogate me now, I’m happy to answer any questions.”
Buck took a seat.
“I’ll take a slice of pie now,” Darkly demanded.
“Yes ma’am.”
Darkly had finished off half the pie before she stopped eating. She picked up the large brown bottle and washed it down with what was left inside. Darkly sat by the window, keeping an eye on the two guards with hunting rifles who patrolled the area around the hotel.
“You look a little different than when I last saw you,” Darkly said.
She knew the attempted arrest was a long-shot, especially with a country sheriff. But, she had to try. Now, she might as well learn as much as she could. One thing she already knew. Buck tasted of death. But, then she did see him kill Christopher, or whatever the hell his actual name was. The question was, had he killed before? She fired her opening shot.
“Who is Sam?”
Buck sighed. “I figured you were too smart to accept my cover. Sam was Christopher.”
“He was one of you? Your kind?”
“A werewolf? Yes. He grew up here.”
“Why did you kill him? Twice?”
Buck shifted in his seat. This was where the explanations became tricky.
“I killed him once. My bullet was the final death. Victoria killed him the first time. She used a silver knife, but she missed the heart. She turned briefly to wolf in order to make it look like an animal attack. But, as I just said, she missed. He healed and lived to die another day.”
“You don’t seem to miss him.”
“He was a killer. Of innocent people.”
“Aren’t you all killers?
“No more than you are.”
“I find that a bit far-fetched. At the diner, you were intent on ordering a Carter burger off the menu.”
“It may have seemed like that to you. I may have even hurt him a little if I hadn’t been tranquilized, which by the way, I ordered. But, I wouldn’t have killed him.”
“How can you be so sure?” asked an incredulous Darkly.
“Because I’ve been this thing my whole life, Darkly, and I swore an oath to protect.”
Buck got up and walked to the window.
“I’d like to show you something.”
“You mean I’m allowed field trips?”
Geraldine waited until Buck and Darkly had gotten into Buck’s truck. Then she entered the hotel. She stopped to look in a mirror and practiced a couple dramatic sighs and worried expressions. She looked over at the table of sandwiches and the flies buzzing around the plate. She curled her lips in disgust. She then called out to Lewis, who came running.
“What is it? Is everything all right? Is there a leak? Is there a fire?” asked the frantic little man.
“Lewis, don’t be a fool. When has there ever been any of those things?”
“1961. A fire took the granary. The whole town smelled of popcorn for a fortnight.”
“Lewis, shut up. What room is the one named Gus in?”
Lewis looked back at the wooden mail slots. He reached into one and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He read it silently, re-folded and put back in the square. He repeated this exercise four times, then looked up at Geraldine.
“Room two sixteen.”
She ran the rest of the way to Gus’s room, ensuring she looked the part of being out of breath. She then knocked on the door as quietly as she could. Gus opened the door.
“Darkly? Where have you been? Oh.” It wasn’t Darkly.
Geraldine moved in close, and Gus backed up into a self-defense pose in the middle of his room.
“You have to come with me,” Geraldine whispered. “Darkly’s in trouble.”
Geraldine turned to leave.
“Come quick or it will be too late to save her.”
So, Gus did the sensible thing and ran after Geraldine.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
They’d been sitting in the same spot for almost three hours. The sun had mostly set, but it still held on to the horizon like a stubborn child who would not go to sleep. The deep blue of the sky ahead and the golden grass
of the field below Darkly were streaked with pink. It was windy, and the tall grass below the hillside, where Darkly and Buck sat, moved in waves like a body of water.
A cold front was moving in, threatening to turn summer to autumn for the night. Darkly shook slightly from the last impact of wind. Buck removed his jacket and hung it around Darkly’s shoulders.
“Here, I’m warm-blooded. I was actually feeling too hot.”
“I’m sure.”
“It’s true. The body temperature of someone like me, well, it runs hotter. A hundred and one degrees Fahrenheit.”
“That’s the same as a domestic dog, isn’t it?” Darkly asked, delighted with her knowledge of trivia.
“We can’t be domesticated.”
“Why did you bring me here? What did you want to show me?”
Darkly was going to be thoroughly pissed off if this was only some gazing at the sunset romantic gesture. And what exactly was she going to do to communicate she was pissed off? What could she do that would show up someone with his horrific talents?
Then she saw the boy. He looked about twelve or thirteen, with shockingly red hair. Darkly watched his head bounce up and down in the grass like a red buoy on the ocean.
“That’s Zachariah.” Buck anticipated her question.
“What’s he doing?”
“It’s his first moon run. The first time he kills.”
Buck caught Darkly’s look.
“Deer, Darkly, deer. Before now, his parents always killed for him and fed him. He ran with them, not alone, merely following. An observer in life. This time, he leaves them a boy and returns in the morning one step closer to being a man.”
“Great. There’s a bar mitzvah for wolves.”
“What’s that?”
Darkly could tell that Buck was being truthful. She could read him like a book. He hadn’t heard the word before.
“A bar mitzvah? Never mind.”
Suddenly, Zachariah’s head dipped below the grass, just as the orb of the sun dipped completely below the horizon. Neither popped back up.